- Bybit CEO Ben Zhou reports that 20% ($280 million) of the $1.4 billion stolen funds have been laundered and are “gone dark,” while 77% ($1.07 billion) remain traceable.
- Hackers converted approximately $1 billion of the stolen ETH to Bitcoin, distributing it across nearly 7,000 wallets to complicate tracking efforts.
- Authorities have frozen 3% ($42 million) of the stolen assets, with Zhou indicating the next two weeks will be critical for recovery efforts.
Approximately 20% of the $1.4 billion in cryptocurrency stolen from Bybit has been successfully laundered and can no longer be traced, according to the exchange’s CEO. The remaining 77% of funds are still trackable, providing investigators with opportunities to recover a significant portion of the stolen assets as recovery efforts continue.
Ben Zhou, Bybit’s CEO, shared an update on March 4 regarding the massive theft of 500,000 Ether (ETH) that occurred in February. Zhou clarified the current status of the stolen funds in a social media post.
“Total hacked funds of USD 1.4bn around 500k ETH, 77% are still traceable, 20% has gone dark, 3% have been frozen,” Zhou stated.
The term “gone dark” indicates that North Korean Hackers have successfully mixed, laundered, or transferred approximately $280 million through platforms that obscure transaction trails. Despite this setback, investigators have managed to freeze $42 million, representing 3% of the stolen cryptocurrency.
The hackers have employed a sophisticated fragmentation strategy with the bulk of the stolen assets. They converted roughly $1 billion (417,348 ETH) to Bitcoin and distributed it across 6,954 cryptocurrency wallets, with each wallet holding an average of 1.71 BTC. This widespread distribution creates significant challenges for tracking and recovery operations.
According to Zhou, the hackers primarily utilized the decentralized exchange THORChain to cash out ETH and BTC, while also leveraging platforms such as ExCH and OKX Web3 Proxy to move portions of the stolen funds.
There is still hope for additional recovery, with Zhou noting that approximately $65 million worth of ETH could potentially be recovered with assistance from the OKX Wallet team. The exchange has also incentivized recovery efforts, rewarding 11 bounty hunters with a total of $2.1 million for their assistance in freezing portions of the stolen funds.
Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic identified more than 11,000 wallets connected to the Bybit hackers on February 25. In response to the massive theft, Bybit engaged Web3 security firm ZeroShadow for blockchain forensics, tasking them with tracing and freezing the stolen funds to maximize recovery potential.
Zhou emphasized that the next one to two weeks represent a critical window for freezing additional funds before the attackers attempt to cash out through cryptocurrency exchanges, over-the-counter (OTC) platforms, and peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions.
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