Bybit reports $1.5B hack to the authorities, working to block stolen ETH sales

Bybit reported a $1.5 billion hack involving 401,000 ETH stolen from its cold wallet to authorities and is working with law enforcement and forensic teams to track the stolen funds and block their sale. Bybit CEO Ben Zhou confirmed the theft but assured users that the exchange remains operational, prioritizing retail withdrawals and processing thousands of requests per hour. Bybit's reserves are reportedly 1:1 backed and no user funds are frozen. The hack exploited Bybit's Gnosis Safe multisig wallets, and while access has been revoked, the hacker, potentially linked to North Korea's Lazarus Group, managed to initiate 4,000 withdrawals. Bybit secured a bridge loan to maintain operations and claims its financial health is not impacted. Bybit is working with on-chain analysts and partners like Binance and Bitget to blacklist the hacker's wallets and prevent the sale of the stolen ETH. Bybit claims all other cold wallets and client funds remain secure and operations are continuing normally.