Interview with Bybit's Ben Zhou and Shunyet: An In-depth Analysis of the $1.5 Billion Theft Incident, Rescue Progress and Future Plans
This discussion in Space focuses on the largest hacking incident in the history of the cryptocurrency sector, which is also regarded as the largest theft in human history. Colin Wu talks with Bybit executives Shunyet Jan and founder Ben Zhou, presenting the details of the event and the subsequent rescue efforts. The incident involved the theft of about $1.5 billion worth of Ethereum, allegedly carried out by the hacking group from North Korea, Lazarus Group. Bybit managed to restore full withdrawal functionality within 12 hours. It prioritized retail withdrawals, imposed tiered restrictions on institutional clients, and made use of the liquidity support from exchanges such as Bitget and OTC service providers. Currently, the liquidity problems have been resolved. However, the possibility of retrieving the stolen funds is extremely low. The company is working with security teams to investigate the root causes of the vulnerabilities, which may be related to technical issues of the multi-s...