Bybit's CEO Acknowledges $1.46B Hacking Incident That Affects Cryptocurrency Markets
A recent hack of the Bybit exchange has led to significant cryptocurrency withdrawals, causing market shifts.
What You Need to Know:
- Blockchain data indicates that around $1.4 billion has been withdrawn so far, with $200 million liquidated on decentralized exchanges.
- Bybit CEO Ben Zhou confirmed that the Ethereum cold wallet of the exchange was hacked.
- Ether prices have decreased by 4% following these transfers.
Cryptocurrency exchange Bybit has faced suspicious outflows amounting to $1.46 billion, according to blockchain analyst ZachXBT. The identified wallet has transferred 401,346 ETH valued at around $1.1 billion along with various staked ether (stETH) to a new wallet, which is now liquidating mETH and stETH on decentralized exchanges, as displayed on Etherscan. The wallet has already sold approximately $200 million worth of stETH.
Bybit CEO Ben Zhou recently stated on X that the hacker managed to “gain control of the specific ETH cold wallet and transferred all the ETH in the cold wallet to this unidentified address.”
“Please rest assured that all other cold wallets are secure. All withdrawals are normal,” Zhou added.
Translation: Please rest assured that all other cold wallets are secure. All withdrawals are normal.
Additionally, ZachXBT commented on Telegram that it was confirmed to be a security incident.
This $1.46 billion hack represents the largest security breach in cryptocurrency history, surpassing notable incidents like the $470 million loss from the Mt. Gox hack and the $650 million stolen in the Ronin Bridge hack.
BTC and ETH have each seen declines of more than 1.5% and 2%, respectively, in the wake of these events.
UPDATE (15:44 UTC, Feb 21): Added quotes from Bybit’s CEO and details about historical cryptocurrency hacks.
