In one of the largest cryptocurrency-related thefts in history, exchange operator Bybit disclosed over the weekend that it lost US$1.5 billion worth of ether, which comes as industry enthusiasm over recent developments starts to wane.
Bybit, one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges, said over the weekend that hackers gained control of its ether cold wallet in a “sophisticated attack” that manipulated one of its routine transfers.
The size of the loss shocked the industry and led to a sell-off of bitcoin and ether, the world’s two largest crypto tokens, with the price of bitcoin dropping 3 per cent and ether plunging 7 per cent in the hours following the exchange’s disclosure on Friday evening, according to Kaiko Research.
Blockchain research firms concluded that the culprit was North Korean hackers, who in a single day nearly doubled the amount they stole last year, according to TRM Labs.
The damage so far has not been widespread in the industry, as client funds were not affected in the incident, according to Bybit. The company has repeatedly guaranteed that it has “more than enough” assets to cover the loss.
Bybit co-founder and CEO Ben Zhou wrote in a post on X on Saturday that a backlog of withdrawals had been processed 12 hours after the “worst hack in history”.
