Bybit said on Sunday it froze $42.89 million of the hacked funds thanks to the efforts of multiple parties and returned to a 1:1 backing of the Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) held in custody, days after the shocking $1.4 billion exploit.
What Happened: Bybit announced via X that it was successful in restricting hackers’ ability to move the funds, a day after hackers stole over $1.4 billion worth of ETH and related tokens.
This was made possible due to the coordinated efforts of multiple teams including stablecoin issuers like Tether (CRYPTO: USDT), Circle (CRYPTO: USDC), the Avalanche ecosystem (CRYPTO: AVAX), and cryptocurrency exchange Bitget, among others.
Furthermore, the exchange thanked Lily Liu, President of the Solana (CRYPTO: SOL) Foundation, and meme coin launchpad Pump.fun for their “swift action” in blocking a Solana-based token whose creator might be affiliated with the group behind the Bybit exploit.
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Meanwhile, Bybit CEO Ben Zhou confirmed that the exchange has “fully closed” the ETH gap through loans, whale deposits, and ETH purchases, returning to a 1:1 backing of its client assets.
Why It Matters: The cryptocurrency market came in for a big jolt Friday after North Korea’s infamous Lazarus Group allegedly hacked over a billion dollars worth of ETH from popular exchange Bybit, marking the biggest cryptocurrency heist ever recorded.
Following the hack, Bybit launched a recovery bounty program, offering up to 10% of the recovered funds as a reward to cybersecurity experts who assist in retrieving the stolen assets.
Bybit continues processing withdrawals, securing liquidity through a bridge loan covering 80% of the stolen Ethereum to ensure customers’ funds remain safe.
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