When exchanges replenish $1.4 billion in holes after hacking, Bibit closes “ETH gap”

Bybit has returned to 1:1 support for client assets, completely closing the “ether gap” that it faced after a $1.4 billion hack hit hit the exchange late Friday.

The exchange received 446,870 ether (ETH), worth $1.23 billion at its current price through loans over the past two days, large deposits and ether purchases.

Address activities suggest that over $400 million was purchased through over-the-counter transactions, and an additional $300 million was brought directly from the exchange. Approximately $300 million was sought on loan. The rest comes from addresses belonging to Crypto Funds.

ETH prices rose to 4% over the weekend amid obvious purchasing activity, but have fallen 2% over the past 24 hours as sentiment is not lifted completely.

Meanwhile, BYBIT said late Sunday that all deposits and withdrawal activities had “full recovery.” Total deposits said they “slightly outperformed” the withdrawal, which was “slightly outperformed” as on Saturday, in signs of market confidence.

Friday’s attack targeted one of Bybit’s offline “cold” wallets. This is a robber who allowed the $1.4 billion ETH to be withdrawn and is usually considered secure due to lack of internet connection.

Hackers gained control by taking advantage of sophisticated methods that include manipulated user interfaces (UIs) and URLs. This allowed the attacker to change the smart contract logic and redirect the funds to an unidentified address. The stolen assets were split into multiple wallets and exchanged for decentralized exchanges.

Blockchain Sluce ZACHXBT linked the hacking to the North Korean Lazarus Group, a hacking collective sponsored by a country notoriously sponsored for crypto theft. Lazarus was behind several well-known crypto attacks, including the $600 million Ronin Network Hack in 2022 and the $230 million drainage of the Indian Exchange Wajirux in 2024.