FBI confirms Lazarus hackers were behind $1.5B Bybit crypto heist

FBI has confirmed that North Korean hackers stole $1.5 billion from cryptocurrency exchange Bybit on Friday in the largest crypto heist recorded until now. The FBI also encouraged RPC node operators, exchanges, bridges, DeFi services, blockchain analytics firms, and other cryptocurrency service providers to block transactions originating from addresses used by North Korean hackers to launder the stolen assets. On Friday, the state-sponsored hacking group (tracked as TraderTraitor, Lazarus Group, and APT38) intercepted a scheduled transfer of funds from one of Bybit's cold wallets into a hot wallet, subsequently redirecting the cryptocurrency to a blockchain address under their control. "The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is releasing this PSA to advise the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) was responsible for the theft of approximately $1.5 billion USD in virtual assets from cryptocurrency exchange, Bybit, on or about February 21, 2025," the FBI said in a Public Service Announcement issued on Wednesday. "TraderTraitor actors are proceeding rapidly and have converted some of the stolen assets to Bitcoin and other virtual assets dispersed across thousands of addresses on multiple blockchains. It is expected these assets will be further laundered and eventually converted to fiat currency." Since the incident, crypto fraud investigator ZachXBT discovered multiple links to the infamous North Korean threat group after the attackers sent some of the stolen ...