What the industry must learn from the largest Bybit hack
The post What the industry must learn from the largest Bybit hack appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.
The following is a guest post from Michael Egorov, Founder of Curve Finance. The recent Bybit hack saw a grand total of $1.5 billion lost in crypto assets and has become the biggest hack in the entire history of this industry. The thing that makes this breach particularly concerning is that hackers targeted Bybit’s cold storage — typically the most secure part of an exchange’s infrastructure. While Bybit moved quickly to replenish its reserves with the help of partners, the whole event still left many people shaken up. This situation once again raises security concerns. How vulnerable are crypto exchanges and what lessons should the industry take from this breach? The Growing Risk to CEX Platforms The way I see it, this incident is more than just another attack — it’s a wake-up call exposing the systemic security flaws of centralized exchanges. Despite implementing strict security measures, CEX platforms remain prime targets for hackers. Why? Precisely because of their centralized nature. Unlike in DeFi, where user funds are distributed across self-custodial wallets, centralized platforms store assets in a controlled infrastructure. This creates a possibility of a single point of failure, where breaching a single layer of security can give attackers easy access to vast amounts of funds. After that, it’s pretty much over. Any recovery of funds has to rely on centralized oversight, assistance of external agents and sheer luck. Chainalysis report clearly shows that in 2024, centralized services were the most targeted, marking a notable shift from DeFi hacks to CeFi. This is further confirmed by Hacken’s data that CeFi breaches more than doubled in the previous year, leading to the loss of almost $700 million. Access control vulnerabilities were highlighted among the primary causes of breaches. This confirms that exchanges need to rethink their approach to security. DeFi’s Alternative…
Filed under: News - @ March 29, 2025 2:20 pm