Cryptocurrency exchange Bybit has recently suffered the largest hack in crypto history, losing about $1.4 billion in assets. In managing the fallout of this devastating event, the Dubai-based exchange has announced a bounty program, potentially amounting to $140 million, to retrace and recover the stolen funds.
Bybit Offers 10% Reward For Assistance In Billion-Dollar Hack
On February 21, Bybit CEO Ben Zhou confirmed reports of a hack stating their multi-sig Ethereum (ETH) cold wallet had been compromised. According to Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao, this is a new blockchain attack trend in which hackers present a false transaction on the front-user interface while users authenticate another (malicious) transaction.
In taking control of Bybit’s cold storage, the hackers transferred $1.4 billion in mantle-staked ETH (mETH) and other ERC-20 tokens to an unidentified wallet address.
So far, on-chain investigator ZachXBT has identified the notorious North Korean Lazarus Group as the suspect in this case based on certain evidence including test transactions analysis and forensic graphs. The Lazarus Group has built quite a troubling reputation following their involvement in the $600 million Ronin hack and the $305 million DMM exploit among other heists.
Bybit has assured customers of its internal systems’ safety which has been demonstrated in attending to over 350,000 withdrawal requests since the hack. However, Bybit has now launched a bounty program as it aims to retrieve the stolen crypto assets.
In a press release on February 22, the crypto exchange is inviting all top cybersecurity and blockchain experts to assist in the efforts to track down the perpetrators of the largest crypto heist. In return, Bybit is offering up to 10% of the loot, i.e. a potential $140 million in compensation. In addition to its bounty program, Bybit states they have also reported the incident to the relevant authorities and is engaging blockchain analytics providers to identify and isolate all wallet addresses connected to the hack.
Crypto Industry Comes To Aid
Following the Bybit hack, the crypto exchange has received invaluable support from other key crypto industry players in this difficult period. Notably, competitors Bitget and Binance have respectively transferred 40,000 ETH and 50,000 ETH to aid withdrawal requests while Du Jun of HTX group has also pledged a 10,000 ETH deposit.
On the other hand, Paolo Ardoino of Tether announced the stablecoin operator has frozen $181,000 USDT linked to the hack. Other exchanges such as OKX and KuCoin have also expressed full support for Bybit. The $1.4 billion heist of the Dubai-based exchange represents the largest ever crypto hack in history, representing half of the amount stolen in the last year.
