Lessons from Hack Bybit: When Cryptocurrency Becomes Good Feed

07 March Lessons from Hack Bybit: When Cryptocurrency is a Good Feed

BYBIT has been hit by a clean, historic hack of USD 1.46 billion due to malicious software that operates trading systems. The perpetrator is suspected to be North Korean hacker group Lazaro.

The money just leapt out of the floor and the hackers quickly cleared the traces through decentralized floors, cross-chain bridges and money mixing services like tornado cash. Some of the properties are frozen, but tracing is still very difficult.

Not only in this case, but many criminal groups and organizations have been suspended to use cryptocurrencies to manipulate financial management and fund shaded activities. Crypto brings financial freedom, but it also brings government headaches due to a more sophisticated money laundering move.

What happened to Hack Bybit?

On February 21, 2025, BYBIT, the world’s second largest crypto trading floor, will enter history with BYBIT, costing $1.46 billion. The Lazarus Hacker Group (related to North Korea) used malware to interfere with Bybit’s transaction approval process, and poured money directly into your wallet. This is the biggest crypto theft ever, surpassing all other popular hacks in the financial industry.

It is worth mentioning that this huge amount is stored in a single wallet and creates weaknesses. If Bybit is applying more security measures, such as multi-layer authentication, anomalous transactions, or splitting properties into cold storage, then there is probably no incident. Anyway, Bybit has also committed to taking responsibility and ensuring that users are not affected.

Dirty money is still “washed” everywhere
After the stolen, the hackers launched a very complicated money laundering campaign. First, to avoid intervention from publishers, stolen tokens (such as Steth and Meta) are converted to ETH via the dex floor. They then used “layering” techniques – spreading small amounts of money across hundreds of intermediaries, disrupting the tracking process.

Hackers also use cross-chain bridges to move money between different blockchains, making research difficult. Some of the money is sent via a mixed money service such as Tornado Cash, breaking the link between the sender and the recipient completely. So far, about $335 million has been washed, but $900 million is still in the hands of hackers.

However, blockchain analytics companies and authorities are still actively monitoring. Some exchanges have frozen assets related to hackers, but most of the money is still “circulated.” Cat and mouse game between hackers and authorities has not fallen yet.

When Crypto is a crime tool

Hackbybit is just a classic example of how organizations are banned (such as North Korea, Iran, Russia) can use code to avoid international sanctions. They use the anonymity of blockchain, dex floors and cross-chain bridges to move money without traditional banks.

With money theft and trading services, there is no need for KYC (ID verification) and peer-to-peer market (P2P) to remain a major gap for criminals. This presents a major challenge when managers must balance preventing illegal activities and do not lose the freedom that cryptography offers.

in short,: Hack Bybit is a wake-up bell for the crypto industry. It shows that no matter how strong and transparent blockchain technology is, the bad guys are willing to exploit gaps for profit. Governments and organizations need to strengthen cooperation to protect users, but ensure that codes are guaranteed on their first mission to provide financial freedom without being abused by illegal activities.

Always be vigilant, give careful security, never subjective!

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