North Korean Hackers Were Behind Crypto's Largest 'Theft of All Time'

Blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence confirmed that North Korea's Lazarus Group stole $1.46 billion from the Bybit cryptocurrency exchange, making it potentially the largest ever single theft. The attackers moved almost $1.5 billion worth of cryptocurrency into a main wallet and then distributed it to over 40 other wallets. They converted various forms of staked Ethereum (stETH, cmETH, mETH) into regular Ethereum (ETH) and then moved the ETH in $27 million increments to more than 10 additional wallets. The hack exploited a vulnerability called "Blind Signing," where a smart contract transaction is approved without full knowledge of its contents, similar to previous attacks on Radiant Capital and WazirX. Bybit's CEO confirmed the hack and loss of all ETH from a specific cold wallet but stated the exchange remains financially stable even if the funds are not recovered.