On the evening of February 21st, Bybit, one of the world's leading cryptocurrency exchanges, was hacked, resulting in the theft of assets including 400,000 ETH and several related tokens, estimated to be worth up to $1.46 billion.

bybit.jpg
Illustrative image.

The hack was discovered by ZachXBT, a blockchain transaction investigator. He stated on Telegram that he had detected a suspicious amount of cryptocurrency being withdrawn from Bybit, totaling the aforementioned value.

After news of the hacking surfaced on global social media platforms, Ben Zhou, CEO of Bybit, confirmed the incident on X. According to him, hackers targeted a cold wallet containing ETH on the exchange, while other hot and cold wallets remained secure.

According to Ben Zhou, Bybit executed a transaction transferring ETH from a cold wallet to a hot wallet; however, this transaction was spoofed by hackers who impersonated the signature interface used to confirm the transfer between the two wallets.

This caused those signing the confirmation to inadvertently sign an order that altered the logic of the cold wallet's smart contract, allowing the hacker to completely control the wallet and withdraw all the ETH to an unknown address.

The CEO of Bybit also held a livestream to reassure users that other cold and hot wallets are currently unaffected and withdrawals on Bybit are still functioning completely normally.

Ben Zhou emphasized that the exchange has sufficient assets to compensate for all losses from the hack, even if the lost funds are not recovered.

"Bybit is fully capable of compensating for any losses, all customer assets are secure, and we will provide updates as new developments occur," the Bybit CEO affirmed.

The hack has also been officially reported and confirmed on the Bybit exchange. The exchange's security team is currently working with leading security experts and blockchain industry partners to investigate the incident.

Bybit also called for the assistance of experienced experts to analyze on-chain data and trace the flow of funds in order to quickly recover the stolen assets.

The hack did affect the cryptocurrency market, but not significantly, with the price of ETH only dropping by about 3% in the last 24 hours and the price of Bitcoin also falling slightly by a few thousand dollars.

Notably, Bybit was hacked shortly after CEO Ben Zhou condemned Pi Network as a fraudulent and illegal project, citing a lack of transparency from the team.

The CEO also cited a 2023 warning from Chinese police about the Pi Network project, accusing it of being a fraudulent pyramid scheme targeting older people to collect personal data and seize assets.