A recent heist has transformed the way we think about theft in the digital age, as Bybit faced a staggering loss of nearly $1.5 billion in Ethereum (ETH) and staked Ethereum.
This incident is now considered the largest cryptocurrency theft ever recorded, with experts suggesting it might be the biggest heist of any kind in history.
According to Bybit’s CEO Ben Zhou, the hacker gained access to one of the exchange’s cold wallets, which are typically offline for security.
They manipulated a planned transfer, sending the funds to an unknown address. Zhou explained that the hacker altered the smart contract logic of the wallet to execute the theft.
Rob Behnke, co-founder of a blockchain security firm, mentioned to Bloomberg that this incident could be the largest theft in history, surpassing previous records in the crypto world.
The Bybit hack significantly outstrips earlier thefts, such as the $620 million stolen from the Ronin Network in 2022 and the $610 million from Poly Network in 2021.
Although the Mt. Gox hack in 2011 took 850,000 Bitcoins, valued at around $450 million at the time, its worth today would be over $81 billion, raising questions about future thefts.
Before the breach, Bybit had approximately $16.2 billion in assets and was trading over $36 billion daily. The theft represented about nine percent of its total assets. Following the news, Ether’s value dropped by as much as 6.7 percent, while Bitcoin fell about three percent.
In a somewhat ironic twist, Zhou assured customers that everything was fine at Bybit, claiming all other cold wallets were secure and that withdrawals remained normal. His post conveyed a sense of calm, despite the significant loss.
Zhou also stated that Bybit had secured around 80 percent of the funds needed to cover the loss through partner loans, suggesting that the exchange might recover more smoothly than expected. He reassured users that their money was safe and that withdrawals were still operational.
Meanwhile, Bybit’s official account reached out for assistance, indicating that their security team and blockchain experts were investigating the incident.
They welcomed help from anyone with skills in blockchain analytics and fund recovery to trace the stolen assets.
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