Bybit Hacker Reportedly Launders Entire $1.4B Loot in Just 10 Days
The recent $1.39 billion exploit of Bybit has sent shockwaves through the cryptocurrency industry, particularly highlighting the vulnerabilities in current security measures against advanced hacking techniques. The hacker responsible for this massive theft has reportedly laundered all 499,000 ETH in a remarkably short span of just ten days, effectively bypassing the monitoring systems of blockchain analytics firms, law enforcement, and crypto exchanges.
### Laundering Details
An on-chain analytics platform, EmberCN, immediately began tracking the stolen funds post-exploit. Remarkably, they reported that within the first 60 hours, the hacker had laundered over 89,000 ETH, valued at approximately $224 million. The next day saw another significant wash of 45,900 ETH, pushing the total laundered assets to 135,000 ETH, and by February 27, an additional 71,000 ETH, worth around $170 million, had been converted.
As of February 28, the malicious actor had processed a total of 266,000 ETH, leaving 233,000 ETH still in their possession. Despite the intense scrutiny from various points in the ecosystem, the attacker managed to maintain a consistent pace of laundering, averaging 45,000 ETH a day. One notable trend was a slowdown on March 1, where only 14,300 ETH was laundered, suggesting the hacker perhaps took a tactical pause. However, by March 4, EmberCN confirmed that all remaining funds had been thoroughly laundered.
### Bybit’s Take
In a twist to the narrative, Bybit’s CEO, Ben Zhou, provided a different perspective, indicating that around 83% of the stolen funds—about $1 billion—had been converted into Bitcoin (BTC) and distributed among nearly 7,000 wallets. Zhou noted that 20% of the total lost funds remain untraceable, while 3% has been frozen. It was revealed that approximately 79,655 ETH was laundered through the eXch exchange, drawing further scrutiny regarding the exchange’s role in the laundering process.
The FBI has drawn connections between the hacker and North Korea’s notorious Lazarus Group, a connection that adds an additional layer of complexity to this cybercrime case. In addition to funds processed through eXch, the hacker reportedly converted another 40,233 ETH via OKX’s web3 wallet. On-chain detectives have traced 16,680 ETH, but the remainder of the funds appears to vanish without a trace—unless Bybit can extract more information from OKX.
Zhou elaborated further on the laundering techniques used, identifying THORChain as the primary platform for these illicit transactions, estimating that over 361,000 ETH valued at more than $900 million were swapped via the cross-chain liquidity protocol.
The sheer magnitude of this breach and the hacker’s adept manipulations underscore the ongoing challenges in the crypto world regarding security and regulatory oversight. As such events continue to unfold, the dialogue surrounding the vulnerabilities in decentralized finance (DeFi) grows ever more critical.
