Catenaa, Saturday, March 08, 2025-Bybit CEO Ben Zhou revealed Tuesday that 20% of the $1.4 billion stolen in a February cyberattack has become untraceable, while 77% of the funds remain visible on the blockchain.
The disclosure comes as the exchange races to freeze assets linked to what is believed to be the largest centralized exchange hack in history.
The attack, attributed to North Korea’s Lazarus Group, resulted in the theft of 400,000 ETH and associated tokens.
Hackers have since converted 83% of the stolen Ethereum into Bitcoin, using decentralized exchange THORChain to move funds across nearly 7,000 wallets. Zhou emphasized that the next two weeks are critical for tracking and freezing the remaining assets.
A portion of the stolen funds, including $79,655 ETH routed through the non-KYC exchange eXch, is already untraceable, Zhou said.
An additional $100 million in ETH passed through OKX Web3’s proxy, with $65 million still unaccounted for.
THORChain, which saw record transaction volumes last week, faces internal debate over whether to block illicit fund flows.
Some members, including a key contributor known as TCB, have resigned, citing concerns over enabling large-scale criminal activity.
Meanwhile, rival cross-chain exchange Chainflip has halted operations to prevent hacked funds from being laundered through its platform.
Bybit’s efforts to recover stolen assets continue, but with hackers already obfuscating portions of the funds, a full recovery appears increasingly unlikely.
