Breaking: Bybit Suffers Historic $1.4 Billion Ethereum Hack

In a major security incident that has rocked the cryptocurrency industry, Singapore-based crypto exchange Bybit has confirmed a massive hack resulting in the theft of over $1.4 billion worth of Ethereum (ETH) from its cold storage wallet.

The breach, which occurred on February 21, 2025, marks one of the largest cryptocurrency heists in history.

How the Hack Unfolded at Bybit

The attack involved a sophisticated form of social engineering where hackers employed a “masked” user interface to trick Bybit’s ETH cold wallet signers.

While the interface displayed legitimate-looking transaction details and appeared to originate from a trusted source, it actually contained malicious code that gave attackers control over the wallet’s smart contract logic.

The stolen assets included:

• 400,000 ETH (approximately $1.1 billion)
• 90,000 stETH
• 15,000 cmETH
• 8,000 cETH

The attacker has already begun moving the funds through a complex series of transactions. The stolen assets were initially transferred to an address starting with 0x476, then distributed across three separate addresses before being further split into dozens of smaller wallets.

Security researchers have noted that the hacker is actively converting liquid staking tokens into ETH, potentially to avoid having the assets frozen.

Impact and Exchange Response

According to BitMEX Research estimates, the attack drained roughly 75% of Bybit users’ ETH deposits. However, Bybit CEO Ben Zhou has assured users that:

• All other cold wallets remain secure
• Regular withdrawals continue to function normally
• The exchange maintains full solvency
• Client assets maintain 1:1 backing
• The company can cover losses if the stolen funds aren’t recovered

Bybit ETH multisig cold wallet just made a transfer to our warm wallet about 1 hr ago. It appears that this specific transaction was musked, all the signers saw the musked UI which showed the correct address and the URL was from @safe . However the signing message was to change…

— Ben Zhou (@benbybit) February 21, 2025

For context, this incident surpasses previous major exchange hacks including:

• Coincheck (2018): $534 million
• Mt. Gox (2014): $470 million
• FTX (2022): $415 million

Despite the significant ETH losses, Bybit still holds substantial reserves in other cryptocurrencies, including:

• $6.9 billion in Bitcoin
• $4.1 billion in USDT
• $1.2 billion in remaining ETH

The incident highlights the ongoing security challenges faced by centralized cryptocurrency exchanges, even as they implement increasingly sophisticated protection measures.

As investigations continue, the crypto community watches closely to see if any of the stolen funds can be recovered or if the attacker’s identity can be uncovered.