Bybit Loses $1.4B in Historic Crypto Hack – Largest Ethereum Theft Yet?!
Nidhi Kolhapur21 Feb 20252 min read
Bybit just suffered one of the biggest crypto hacks ever, losing a staggering $1.4 billion in Ether (ETH) and staked Ether (stETH). The attack was first spotted by blockchain analyst ZachXBT, who flagged unusual outflows before confirming the breach through his sources. Bybit’s CEO, Ben Zhou, later admitted the hack, revealing that the attacker took control of one of the exchange’s cold wallets and drained all its ETH holdings.
Hacker Moves $1 Billion in Stolen ETH
According to Arkham Intelligence, the hacker has already transferred $1 billion worth of ETH (400,000 ETH) from the original stolen wallet to new addresses. So far, they have used 53 wallets and currently hold around $1.37 billion in stolen ETH. This makes it the biggest crypto hack ever, accounting for 16% of all crypto-related hacks to date.
Bybit’s Reserves Take a Massive Hit
Bybit’s proof of reserves from the previous day showed the exchange held 543,453 ETH, with 537,152 ETH owed to users—leaving an extra 6,301 ETH. However, the hacker stole 401,346 ETH, far exceeding this surplus. Before the attack, Bybit’s total reserve assets were worth $16.2 billion, meaning the stolen funds accounted for 8.64% of its total reserves.
Bybit CEO Ben Zhou stated that the exchange won’t buy ETH immediately to cover the losses due to the large volume. However, he assured users that 80% of the required ETH had already been secured through a bridge loan. Despite these assurances, the hack triggered a wave of withdrawals, with users pulling out around $700 million from the platform.
Where Did the Stolen ETH Go?
After stealing 401,346 ETH, the hacker quickly moved the funds across different wallets. So far, 39 addresses have received 10,000 ETH each, along with another nine addresses getting the same amount. Analysts believe this is a strategy to make it harder to track and recover the stolen funds.
Crypto Market Reacts: Bitcoin and Ether Slide
The hack caused a sell-off in the crypto market. Bitcoin (BTC) briefly neared $100,000 before dropping to around $97,000, while Ether (ETH) fell nearly 4% to below $2,700. Other major cryptocurrencies also took a hit—XRP fell over 4.5% to $2.58, and Stellar (XLM) dropped 4.84% to $0.3303. As traders moved away from risk, the total crypto market cap slipped 0.80% to $3.2 trillion.
One question remains—where will the hacker strike next?
