One of the biggest crypto heists recently happened just a few days back, where Bybit, a leading cryptocurrency exchange, fell victim to the hackers. This hack resulted in the theft of over U.S. $1.4 billion worth of cryptocurrency. On February 21, 2025, this hack took place, and Bybit announced that a sophisticated attack accessed one of the company’s wallets, which resulted in the theft of 401,346 Ethereum.
This is the biggest crypto attack of its kind, and blockchain monitoring firms, as well as the FBI, have been blaming the North Korean government for being the mastermind.
At this point, the entire world is discussing this Bybit historical theft. Reports indicate that this entire fund has been transferred into different cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, after the rapid move out of Ethereum from the wallets.
Andrew Fierman, the head of national security intelligence at blockchain monitoring firm Chainalysis, mentioned to sources that the company has been tracking the stolen funds, and per him, “the majority of which have been converted to [Bitcoin] and are being held in ~4,400 addresses.” The remaining 10% was lost to off-ramps. For those who are unaware, off-ramps are services that turn crypto into cash.
As the experts stated, during the period of February 24 and March 2, these North Korean hackers have worked effectively to obscure the origins of the stolen cryptocurrency, using THORSwap. It is a decentralized protocol where users can swap assets across different blockchains without the requirement of any intermediary.
While most companies think it’s all about North Korean money-laundering strategies, a few of them are suspecting maybe China is involved in this process. Watching the efficiency, Ari Redbord, a former federal prosecutor and senior Treasury official, stated, “This rapid laundering suggests that North Korea has either expanded its money-laundering infrastructure or that underground financial networks, particularly in China, have enhanced their capacity to absorb and process illicit funds.”
Even after all this, one glaring question remains: whether these stolen funds can be recovered. Well, Bybit's CEO, Ben Zhou, has confirmed that about 77% of the stolen funds are traceable. Along with that, he also mentioned that over U.S. $280 million had “gone dark” and was not likely to be recoverable anymore.
Aside from that, crypto security experts have expressed that collaboration between exchanges, regulators, and blockchain analytics firms could freeze certain assets. However, Bybit has taken swift action and replaced the stolen $1.4 billion in Ethereum by February 24 to assure customers.
The Bybit hack has shown the vulnerabilities in the crypto space. As the attackers have figured out how to bypass the security measures, they can do something bigger in the future if not stopped early. Therefore, a security improvement is essential to prevent this type of attack in the future.