Ben Zhou, CEO of the Bybit crypto exchange, confirmed that the hack on February 21, committed by the Lazarus hacker group (DPRK), was the largest one-time theft in the history of the crypto market.
500,000 ETH worth about $1.4 billion was withdrawn from the exchange, including:
27.59% of funds are recognized as lost
68.57% continue to be tracked on the blockchain
3.84% were frozen thanks to third-party platforms
Laundering scheme:
Transfer to mixers (incl. Wasabi, Tornado Cash, CryptoMixer, Railgun)
Then there is cross-chain and sending to OTC and P2P platforms
After the incident, the exchange stated that it would cover the losses. However, later the team announced optimization: a number of Web3 services and an NFT marketplace would be closed.
The Lazarus Group continues to be one of the most active and dangerous hacker groups specializing in attacks on crypto exchanges and DeFi infrastructure.
