Following a major hack that targeted Bybit on February 21, the exchange has managed to recover a significant portion of its Ethereum reserves, bouncing back to nearly half of its pre-attack levels.
The attack, which saw the theft of over $1.4 billion in liquid-staked Ethereum, Mantle Staked ETH, and various ERC-20 tokens, remains the largest cryptocurrency hack in history.
In just two days, Bybit’s ETH holdings climbed from a low of 61,000 ETH to over 201,600 ETH, driven by a mix of over-the-counter (OTC) purchases and emergency assistance from other industry players. Notably, Binance, Bitget, and HTX Group’s Du Jun contributed 50,000, 40,000, and 10,000 Ether respectively to help stabilize the exchange.
The swift recovery has fostered continued user confidence, as Bybit also processed over 350,000 withdrawal requests with a 99.9% completion rate within 10 hours of the breach.
The attack, attributed to the Lazarus Group—allegedly a North Korean hacker group—compromised Bybit’s Ethereum multisig cold wallet. Analysts suggest the breach occurred via a deceptive transaction that misled wallet signers into authorizing a harmful smart contract update.
Despite the financial setback, Bybit’s proof-of-reserve auditor confirmed that the platform’s reserves still surpass its liabilities, ensuring user funds remain secure.
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