BREAKING! Bybit Suffers $1.4 Billion Hack in Liquid-Staked ETH and mETH
TL;DR
Bybit suffered a cyber attack, resulting in the theft of over $1.4 billion in stETH and MegaETH (mETH).
The exchange’s CEO confirmed that the attackers manipulated a transaction in a multisignature wallet to steal funds, but assured that the other cold wallets are secure.
Despite the theft, they assure that customer assets are fully backed, and server maintenance will be carried out to prevent any further threats.
Bybit, one of the most important crypto exchanges in the market, has just fallen victim to a cyber attack, resulting in the theft of more than $1.4 billion in funds, mainly in stETH and MegaETH (mETH). According to an on-chain analysis by ZackXBT, the attackers managed to access an Ethereum cold wallet on the platform and stole a staggering amount of assets.
The CEO of Bybit, Ben Zhou, reported that the attack occurred through the manipulation of a transaction in a multisignature wallet, which was disguised to appear legitimate. However, the malicious code implemented in the smart contract altered the wallet’s logic, allowing the theft of the funds.
Bybit ETH multisig cold wallet just made a transfer to our warm wallet about 1 hr ago. It appears that this specific transaction was musked, all the signers saw the musked UI which showed the correct address and the URL was from @safe . However the signing message was to change…
— Ben Zhou (@benbybit) February 21, 2025
Despite the severity of the incident, Zhou assured that the other cold wallets remain secure and that there were no interruptions in withdrawals or platform operations.
Bybit Falls Victim to the Largest Hack in Industry History
The company has stated that, although the stolen funds have not been recovered, its solvency is unaffected, and client assets are fully backed one-to-one. Additionally, Bybit has urged other exchanges and platforms to blacklist the addresses associated with the attack, with the aim of preventing the stolen funds from being moved.
Bybit detected unauthorized activity involving one of our ETH cold wallets. The incident occurred when our ETH multisig cold wallet executed a transfer to our warm wallet. Unfortunately, this transaction was manipulated through a sophisticated attack that masked the signing…
— Bybit (@Bybit_Official) February 21, 2025
The attack takes place amid a wave of hacks on the crypto market, which has been continuously under siege in early 2025. This phenomenon is causing significant concern within the industry. According to the data, the stolen funds have been transferred to various addresses and are being exchanged for Ethereum on decentralized exchanges.
Ongoing Maintenance with Normal Operations
To address this incident, Bybit has implemented maintenance on its servers, which will last at least two days. The platform will do everything possible to ensure the integrity of its infrastructure. Despite the scale of the theft, the exchange has assured that operations will continue normally and that the security of customer funds is an immediate priority
Filed under: News - @ February 21, 2025 5:17 pm