The Biggest Hacking History in Cryptocurrency Shocks Bybit

In a startling blow to the cryptocurrency industry, Bybit, a prominent crypto exchange, suffered what analysts describe as the largest hacking incident in cryptocurrency history. On February 21, 2025, hackers stole $1.5 billion in digital assets, the greatest cryptocurrency robbery ever recorded. The assault targeted Bybit's cold wallet technology, which is generally an impenetrable fortress of offline storage, exposing flaws even in the most secure sections of the cryptocurrency sector.

The stolen assets, mostly ether (ETH), were quickly routed via a sophisticated network of wallets and sold across several platforms. Blockchain sleuths from companies such as Elliptic and Arkham Intelligence scrambled to trace down the stolen funds, observing as the hackers followed a sophisticated plan to hide their footprints. “This dwarfs every cryptocurrency theft we've seen before,” an Elliptic official said, citing previous events such as the $611 million Poly Network attack in 2021 and the $570 million Binance BNB token theft in 2022. The sheer scope of this breach has confirmed its status as the largest hacking incident in Bitcoin history.

Ben Zhou, Bybit's CEO, went to X to reassure users, saying, “Please rest assured that all other cold wallets are secure.” He highlighted that withdrawal operations were unaffected, saying, “All withdrawals are NORMAL.” The discovery, however, that the assault was carried out by North Korea's infamous Lazarus Group—a state-backed cyber syndicate—shocked the community. The organization, known for supporting Pyongyang's leadership through cybercrime, has a terrible track record, including a $200 million bitcoin heist from South Korean markets in 2017.

Tom Robinson, Elliptic's principal scientist, verified the Lazarus link, saying, “We've labeled the thief's addresses in our software, to help prevent these funds from being cashed out through any other exchanges.” The hackers used sophisticated tactics: they exploited a weakness in Bybit's cold wallet security, altering signature messages to hijack the smart contract logic that governs Ethereum storage. Once in possession, they drained the wallets and began a laundering spree, trading tokens and bridging assets to Bitcoin via platforms like Chainflip.

The fallout was swift. Panicked Bybit consumers launched a withdrawal frenzy, believing that the exchange would collapse under the weight of their losses. Zhou promptly addressed these worries, stating that outflows had steadied and revealed a bridging loan from unknown partners to support operations. Still, the episode has rekindled arguments about the long-term hazards of large-scale crypto thefts, casting a pall over the industry's expansion.

ZachXBT, an on-chain analyst, initially raised the alarm after noticing strange outflows of ETH and STETH from Bybits reserves. His findings, which were confirmed by Arkham Intelligence, tracked the monies to a Safe wallet (address: 0xa4b2fd68593b6f34e51cb9edb66e71c1b4ab449e) before spreading over several accounts. Centralized exchanges and protocols hurried to ban the identified addresses in an effort to stymie the hackers' cash-out attempts. However, ZachXBT later warned via Telegram that the Lazarus Group was already laundering the proceeds through obscure platforms such as eXch, demonstrating their proficiency in avoiding discovery.

For Bybit, the breach was a cold wallet disaster. Zhou noted that, while hot wallets were unaffected, the attackers' manipulation of ETH wallet contracts enabled them to acquire control of the offline funds. “The explanation for this incident lies in the manipulation of signature messages,” he stated, emphasizing that other wallet kinds were not affected. Bybit has subsequently resumed regular withdrawal services, which Zhou cited as evidence of the exchange's resiliency.

The most serious hacking incident in cryptocurrency history is more than simply a Bybit issue; it is a wake-up call for the industry. Experts such as Robinson suggest that preventing these crimes requires making stolen cash more difficult to commercialize. “The more difficult we make it to benefit from crimes such as this, the less frequently they will take place,” he predicted. As law enforcement and blockchain trackers look for the stolen $1.5 billion, the Lazarus Group's newest triumph serves as a harsh reminder of crypto's Achilles' heel: even the most robust protections may fail.

This enormous robbery has left Bybit scrambling to rebuild confidence while strengthening security. For the larger crypto community, this is a critical time to reconsider measures against state-sponsored attacks like Lazarus. As the dust settles, one thing is certain: the largest hacking incident in Bitcoin history has established a new standard for both cybercriminal daring and the stakes of digital asset safety.