North Korean hackers linked to $1.5 billion ByBit crypto heist

​Over the weekend, blockchain security companies and experts have linked North Korea's Lazarus hacking group to the theft of over $1.5 billion from cryptocurrency exchange Bybit. In what is now considered the largest crypto heist in history, the attackers intercepted a planned transfer of funds from one of Bybit's cold wallets into a hot wallet, redirecting the crypto assets to a blockchain address under their control. "On February 21, 2025, at approximately 12:30 PM UTC , Bybit detected unauthorized activity within one of our Ethereum (ETH) Cold Wallets during a routine transfer process. The transfer was part of a scheduled move of ETH from our ETH Multisig Cold Wallet to our Hot Wallet," Bybit explained in a post-mortem published on Friday. "Unfortunately, the transaction was manipulated by a sophisticated attack that altered the smart contract logic and masked the signing interface, enabling the attacker to gain control of the ETH Cold Wallet. As a result, over 400,000 ETH and stETH worth more than $1.5 billion were transferred to an unidentified address." While this led to the theft of over $1.5 billion worth of ETH and stETH, Bybit said its services were largely unaffected despite a massive wave of 580,000 withdrawal requests after the incident was disclosed. It also added that all other cold wallets and assets remained secure. The crypto exchange has since restored its ETH reserves, and the company's CEO says that Bybit is solvent even if the lost assets will not be fu...