Cryptocurrency exchange Bybit faces largest theft in history, with over $1.5B stolen

UAE-based cryptocurrency exchange Bybit confirmed on Friday that hackers stole $1.5 billion in digital assets from the platform, marking the largest theft in the industry’s history.

According to the company, attackers exploited security protocols during a transaction, enabling them to transfer the assets to an unidentified address.

This compromised an offline “wallet” that stored Ethereum, and the hackers stole 400,000 ethereums on Friday morning.

Ethereum is the second-largest cryptocurrency by market value after bitcoin, and was worth $2,641.41 on Friday after the hack, down nearly 4%.

‘Your funds are safe’

“We want to assure our users and partners that all other Bybit cold wallets remain fully secure. All client funds are safe, and our operations continue as usual without any disruption,” the company stated on X.

Bybit CEO and founder Ben Zhou addressed the hack during an online livestream, assuring users that “your funds are safe.”

Ben Zhou's Livestream on the Latest ETH Wallet Incident LIVE now. https://t.co/mBwD9ubGIl

— Bybit (@Bybit_Official) February 21, 2025

Zhou stated that Bybit holds $20 billion in client assets and pledged that any unrecovered funds would be covered through the company’s treasury or a bridge loan from partners.

While the perpetrators remain unknown, the scale of the theft far exceeds the previous record: a $620 million heist of ethereum and USD coin from the Ronin Network in 2022, allegedly carried out by North Korea’s Lazarus group.

Founded in 2018, Bybit counts prominent Donald Trump ally Peter Thiel among its early investors, according to PitchBook. The platform also operates in Türkiye, where it has been officially listed by the Turkish Capital Markets Board as a “crypto asset service provider.”