Hackers steal $1.5bn from crypto exchange Bybit in biggest-ever heist

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Hackers stole about $1.5bn in crypto tokens from Bybit, in a heist the digital asset exchange described as the biggest theft to hit the industry.

Ethereum coins were been taken from Bybit’s offline or “cold” wallet, the exchange’s chief executive Ben Zhou said in a post on X.

“As far as we know this could be the largest hack in the history of our industry,” Zhou added later in a live-stream update.

Zhou said there had been a rush to withdraw from the exchange but the flow had slowed. He said the site was getting a bridge loan from its partners and it would make users whole for any coins it could not reclaim.

The hack marks a blow to the crypto industry, which has been resurgent in the past few months on expectations the Trump administration will take a more friendly approach to digital assets.

Large-scale thefts have been a long-running issue for the crypto industry from its earliest years and have highlighted security concerns

In 2011, Mt Gox, then the go-to venue for the majority of bitcoin transactions, lost about 25,000 coins worth $470mn at the time.

About $570mn was taken from the Binance exchange in October 2022 that was later traced to a bug in a smart contract, a computer program that executes actions automatically when certain conditions are met.

Zhou confirmed on Friday that some 400,000 coins were taken, which he said were worth about $1.5bn.

Ethereum is the third most-traded crypto coin, behind Bitcoin and Tether, a so-called stablecoin whose value is linked to the US dollar.

Cold wallets are considered to be safer than online “hot” wallets, and Bybit’s required multiple signers before coins could be transferred, according to the company. Zhou said he did not know how the wallet was hacked but that it was being investigated.

Research group Arkham Intelligence said in a post on X that it had tracked $1.36bn of ethereum leaving Bybit for multiple other accounts where it was rapidly being sold.