'Biggest hack in history' sees $1.4bn in cryptocurrency stolen from online exchange
22 February 2025, 12:17 | Updated: 22 February 2025, 12:23
Hackers have stolen more than £1.1 billion pounds' worth of digital money in what is thought to be the biggest cryptocurrency theft in history.
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The Bybit exchange, located in Dubai, says the attacker gained control of an Ethereum wallet and transferred its entire holdings to an unidentified address.
The firm, which has 60 million users worldwide, is thought to be the first to lose a ten-figure sum in a single attack.
In an attempt to calm concerns, the firm said that no other wallets have been affected in the attack.
It added that withdrawals are being undertaken as normal.
It's the latest currency exchange to fall victim to a major cyber attack, with the likes of Mt. Gox, Bitfinex, FTX, and others targeted by thieves in recent years.
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However, the recent raid is thought to be the most costly.
During the raid, Ethereum coins were taken from Bybit’s offline or “cold” wallet, the exchange’s chief executive Ben Zhou said in a post on X.
Cold wallets are widely considered to be safer than “hot” wallets which are active online.
“As far as we know this could be the largest hack in the history of our industry,” he added later in a live-stream update.
Zhou said that after news of the raid emerged, there had been a flurry of activity, with investors withdrawing currency from the exchange.
Bybit requires multiple signers on any transaction before currency is transferred, according to the company, raising further questions over how the hack took place.
Zhou added that despite withdrawals from a large number of accounts, the rate had now slowed, adding the site would be getting a bridge loan from its partners to cover any loss that the wallet owner may incur.
Zhou confirmed that around 400,000 coins were stolen from the exchange late on Friday, which he said had an estimated worth of around $1.4 billion - around £1.12 billion.
Speaking following the incident, he said that he did not know how the wallet was hacked - adding the attack was being investigated.
In October 2022, $570 million taken from the Binance exchange.
It was eventually found to have been caused by a bug in a smart contract - a computer program that automatically executes actions.
