The biggest crypto heist ever: $1.5 billion stolen from Bybit cryptocurrency exchange

$1.5 billion.

That’s the amount of money that has just been stolen by hackers from one of the world’s biggest crypto exchanges.

On Friday, Ben Zhou, cofounder and CEO of the crypto exchange Bybit, shared that hackers had gained control of Bybit’s ETH (Ethereum) wallet and transferred all of its holdings to an unknown crypto wallet address.

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According to Bybit’s holdings, that amounts to $1.5 billion in cryptocurrency that was stolen from Bybit and its customers, making this the largest ever cryptocurrency theft. However, as Molly White of Web3IsGoingGreat points out, the hacker can’t exactly cash out $1.5 billion in Ethereum, because an amount that high would crash the value of ETH.

Still, valued at $1.5 billion, the Bybit heist would make up more than half of the total amount of crypto stolen in 2024, according to a report from Chainalysis last year. The Chainalysis report found that $2.2 billion was stolen off of crypto platforms in 2024.

While Zhou seems to hope that the crypto lost in the heist will be recovered, he promised Bybit would cover the losses and let customers know they would receive a refund of any lost holdings.

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“Bybit is solvent even if this hack loss is not recovered, all of clients assets are 1 to 1 backed, we can cover the loss,” Zhou posted on X.

Regardless, news of the hack rattled customers who started to withdraw their crypto holdings from the platform. According to GovInfoSecurity, a peak of $5.3 billion was withdrawn from the platform on Saturday night.

Bybit says it holds $20 billion in crypto assets.

In a post on Sunday, Bybit CEO Zhou said that the company has already closed the gap created by the heist from “loans, whale deposits, and ETH purchases.”

It remains to be seen whether the stolen $1.5 billion in crypto will be recovered. Bybit has launched a bounty program that will reward 10 percent or as much as $140 million for the return of the stolen funds.

“Bybit, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, is calling on the brightest minds in cyber security and crypto analytics to join the global hunt for the perpetrators of crypto’s largest heist in history,” the company said in a statement.