Hackers laundered more than half of the $1,4 billion stolen from Bybit

Experts say they are distributing tokens across hundreds of wallets to make it difficult to track movements

03.03.2025 - 12:55

2 min

What’s new? IS firm PeckShield estimates that as of March 1, hackers have laundered 280 600 Ethereum (ETH) coins worth $660 million stolen from centralized crypto exchange (CEX) Bybit. This amount represents about 57% of the funds the exchange lost in the February 21 attack.

Source: X.com

What else is known? The malware attack on Bybit is currently considered the largest single theft in history. At the time it occurred, the value of cryptocurrencies stolen from Bybit was $1,46 billion.

According to the FBI, as well as cryptocurrency security experts such as Elliptic and an anonymous researcher under the nickname ZachXBT, North Korean hackers from the Lazarus group are behind it, directing the stolen funds to finance the government’s weapons program.

This conclusion was based on the cryptocurrency laundering tactics that the hackers began to implement after the hack. It was typical of Lazarus and involved several steps, including converting tokens into bitcoins and ETH to avoid being frozen, distributing them to hundreds of wallets, and sending them to cross-chain protocols, crypto mixers, and decentralized exchanges (DEX) to make it difficult to track their movements.

PeckShield noted that in just February, the crypto industry lost $1,5 billion in hacks, the worst result in its history. While the hackers have laundered more than half of the assets stolen from Bybit, they still hold 218 750 ETH worth $514,3 million in the wallet.

Late last month, FBI agents urged crypto companies to block transactions by Bybit hackers.

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