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Bybit Covers ETH Loss After $1.4B Hack

The exchange has pledged a reward of up to 10% of the recovered funds

By Lawrence Mike Woriji

3 min read
Bybit Covers ETH Loss After $1.4B Hack

Bybit CEO Ben Zhou shared a piece of exciting news with the community on Monday, February 24.

The platform’s founder said the exchange had fully covered its ETH reserves stolen during Friday’s hack on the platform. Let’s discover more news about Bybit.

Bybit Closes ETH Gap, New Proof-of-Reserves Report Coming Soon

Zhou wrote on X, “Bybit has already fully closed the ETH gap; a new audited POR report will be published very soon to show that Bybit is again back to 100% 1:1 on client assets through Merkle tree. Stay tuned.”

Zhou’s tweet follows a report by Lookonchain that claimed the exchange had received 446,870 Ether from loans from competitors like Binance, HTX, and Bitget. Bybit reportedly purchased around $400 million worth of ETH from firms like FalconX and Wintermute through OTC transactions.

Bybit Moves to Recover Stolen Funds

Beyond recovering its ETH reserve, Bybit is working hard to recover the stolen funds. The exchange has launched a 10% bounty program to encourage ethical hackers and other players to help recover the funds.

“Bybit launched a bounty program on February 22, encouraging ethical hackers and cybersecurity experts to assist in the recovery process. The exchange has pledged a reward of up to 10% of the recovered funds, potentially offering as much as $140 million if the full amount is reclaimed.” Zhou said

Bybit’s recovery efforts include collaborating with other platforms to freeze suspected stolen funds. The trading platform has successfully recovered over $40 million in collaboration with the likes of CoinEx, Circle, and Tether.

Lazarus to Use Crypto Mixers

Blockchain security firm Elliptic recently shared insight into the laundering pattern used by the Lazarus group. Elliptic noted that the North Korea-backed group often deployed multiple measures in laundering its loot.

Some of its popular tricks involve quickly exchanging coins into Bitcoin or Ethereum to avoid freezing. Furthermore, the group is said to scatter funds across multiple wallets to make it difficult to trail the stolen money. Finally, Elliptic predicts that Lazarus could likely resort to crypto mixers. These mixing services often make tracking stolen funds a difficult task.

The $1.4 billion Bybit hack is the biggest crypto hack in history and one of the most notable tracks on a financial platform in modern memory. The situation has raised concerns about the poor security measures at most crypto platforms.

The information discussed by Altcoin Buzz is not financial advice. This is for educational, entertainment, and informational purposes only. Any information or strategies are thoughts and opinions relevant to the accepted levels of risk tolerance of the writer/reviewers and their risk tolerance may be different than yours. We are not responsible for any losses that you may incur as a result of any investments directly or indirectly related to the information provided. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are high-risk investments so please do your due diligence. Copyright Altcoin Buzz Pte Ltd.

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