Is This The Biggest Hack In History?
Bybit, a crypto currency firm based in Duabai, has disclosed that hackers stole $1.5bn (£1.1bn) of digital currency - probably the biggest known cryptocurrency theft in history.
An attacker allegedly gained control of an Ethereum 'cold wallet' and transferred around $1.5bn worth of holdings to an unidentified address.
The company says the incident has led to a “surge” in withdrawal requests, but that withdrawals have not been halted and all other wallets remain secure.
Bybit holds a total $20bn (£15bn) in assets.Bybit's founder Ben Zhou told Bybit users that their funds were "safe" and that if would refund any of those affected. “As far as we know this could be the largest hack in the history of our industry,” Zhou said. It is understood that Bybit is getting a loan from its partners that will allow it to refund uses for any digital currenvy that it could not recover. Zhou said there had been a rush to withdraw from the exchange but the pace of withdrawals had slowed.
"Bybit is solvent even if this hack loss is not recovered, all of clients assets are 1 to 1 backed, we can cover the loss," Mr Zhou said.
Hackers somehow gained access to digital wallet containing Ethereum, the second largest crypto currency by value after Bitcoin. Bybit said the hackers exploited security features, then transferred the money to an unidentified address. After the theft, the value of Ethereum fell by around 4%.
The scale of the theft would exceed a previous record, which was a $620m (£490m) theft of Ethereum and USD Coin from the Ronin Network in 2022.
Bybit was founded in 2018 and US President Donald Trump and former Paypal chief Peter Thiel were reportedly amongst its early investors. Bybit says it has more than 60 million users worldwide and offers access to various cryptocurrencies. The firm has said in an X post that it had reported the case to authorities and that it was working "quickly and extensively" to identify the hackers.
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.
Cryptocurrencies, which have become popular with investors, have sparked division as many criticise their value for being based purely on speculation, allowing their value to be easily manipulated and this mst recent event highlights security concerns within the digital currency market,
In 2014, crypto exchange Mt. Gox went bankrupt after $350m (£210m) of digital currency was stolen due to a defect in its security, while in 2019, hackers stole $41m in cryptocurrency from the Binance crypto exchange.
@Bybit | @Bybit | BBC | FT | Gulf Business | National News
Image: @Bybit
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