Recently, in one of the most disastrous hacking attacks conducted by the notorious North Korean hacker group, Lazarus, Bybit lost at least $1.4 billion. The incident has sent shockwaves across the cryptocurrency industry. However, with the support of various top crypto players, including prominent blockchain security groups, the organisation has launched an action to regain the lost funds. A post by Bybit CEO Ben Zhou indicates that the action has achieved the desired result to some extent. According to Zhou, at least 88.87% of the stolen funds remain traceable. Curious to know more. Read on!
Bybit Hack: Latest Tracking Updates
In the post, Ben Zhou asserts that around 88.87% of the stolen funds of $1.4 billion remain traceable.
This clearly indicates that the efforts to recover the lost funds are progressing in the right direction.
In the initial report after the Bybit hack, the organisation claimed that only 77% of the stolen funds were traceable.
According to Ben Zhou’s post, at least 3.54% of the stolen funds have already been frozen. Meanwhile, over 7.59% of the funds have gone dark.
How the Stolen Crypto Was Laundered by Lazarus?
It was Arkham Intelligence that initially identified the involvement of Lazarus Group in the hack attack against Bybit.
Security experts noted that within ten days of the hack attack, Lazarus laundered all the stolen funds through THORChain, which is a decentralised cross-chain protocol.
Experts also added that to confuse the agencies involved in recovering the funds, the hackers used Bitcoin mixers, like Wasabi, CryptoMixer, Railgun and Tornado Cash.
Efforts to Recover the Stolen Bybit Funds
The efforts to recover the funds are led by at least 12 organisations, including Mantle, Paraswap, ZachXBT.
In order to strengthen the fund recovery process, Bybit has even launched a bounty program, which promises a 10% reward on funds retrieved by ethical hackers and investigators. The organisation has already paid at least $2.2 million as part of this program.
Previous Crypto Recovery Success Stories
In 2023, no fewer than $140 million of the funds lost to the Wormhole hack was recovered by Jump Crypto.
Similarly, in early 2024, nearly $2.6 million of the funds stolen from Deribit and a digital casino by Lazarus Group was recovered with the assistance of the US government.
Lazarus Group is notorious for how it uses the funds it steals. In a UN report, it states that at least 40% of the funds Lazarus Group steals go to North Korea’s weapons of mass destruction program.
In late last year, the FBI issued a warning about the tactics used by Lazarus Group to destabilise the blockchain industry.
In conclusion, Bybit’s massive hack highlights the growing crypto security threats in the crypto space. While most stolen funds remain traceable, the use of mixers and cross-chain swaps complicates recovery efforts. The Lazarus Group’s activities also raise broader security concerns, with experts warning about their impact on global finance and security.
