Okay, here’s the lowdown. Bybit just dropped an update on that insane $1.4 billion hack they suffered, and it’s a wild ride.
Bybit CEO Ben Zhou says hackers managed to swipe around 500,000 ETH, and yeah — they tried to cover their tracks hard. But here’s the twist: more than two-thirds of that money is still traceable.
Let’s unpack.
What the Hackers Did to Bybit
So, once the hackers got the ETH, they didn’t just sit on it. They immediately ran it through privacy tools like Wasabi, then bounced it through CryptoMixer, Tornado Cash, and Railgun — all stuff designed to hide money on the blockchain.
Next stop? Cross-chain bridges like Thorchain, LiFi, SunSwap, Stargate, and a bunch of others. These let them move crypto between chains, making it even harder to follow. Finally, they dumped the funds on OTC desks and peer-to-peer exchanges to turn that crypto into real-world cash.
ETH Got Turned Into BTC
The biggest move? The hackers converted a huge chunk of ETH to Bitcoin. We’re talking over 432,000 ETH, or $1.2 billion, shifted off Ethereum. Nearly 343,000 ETH got turned into 10,003 BTC and split into 35,000+ wallets. Most of those wallets now hold tiny pieces — around 0.28 BTC each.
And guess what? Some of that BTC went back through mixers, and even a small amount got converted back into ETH.
So, What’s the Score Now?
Here’s the current status, straight from Zhou:
- $1.24B (68.6%) is still traceable
- $386M (27.6%) has gone dark
- $53.6M (3.8%) is frozen
Yep, most of the stolen funds haven’t disappeared completely — they’re still being tracked.
Enter: LazarusBounty.com
To fight back, Bybit launched a platform called LazarusBounty.com. It’s basically a bounty pool with $140 million up for grabs for anyone who can help trace or freeze the stolen crypto.
So far:
- 5,400+ reports have been filed
- Only 70 of them were valid
- $2.3M has already been paid out
- 12 active bounty hunters are grinding away right now
The rules are simple: 5% to the person who helps trace the funds, 5% to whoever freezes them.
TL;DR?
This isn’t just another lost-crypto story. Bybit is actually chasing down the money — and making some real progress. Zhou’s final message was basically a call to action: if you’re into blockchain sleuthing, now’s your moment.
There’s still hundreds of millions left to recover. And honestly, the fight’s just heating up.
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