ByBit CEO: This Is ‘Critical’ Week to Freeze Funds From $1.4 Billion Hack

The CEO of Bybit has warned that the exchange is in a race against time to recover the $1.4 billion in crypto stolen by North Korean hackers.

In an update on X, formerly Twitter, Ben Zhou revealed that 20% of the Ethereum taken in last month’s audacious attack has already “gone dark.”

About 77% of the illicit funds remain traceable, meaning just 3% has been successfully frozen.

All of this comes as data from Nansen reveals that those responsible have “officially emptied their wallet,” going from $1.4 billion to $1,429 in 10 days.

Last week, Arkham Intelligence had closely monitored the hackers as they moved this Ethereum like clockwork—making two to three transactions a minute for 45 minutes, and then taking a 15-minute break.

According to Zhou, 83% of the stolen funds have been converted from ETH to Bitcoin, primarily through the decentralized exchange THORChain.

He added that 16% of the crypto went dark through the non-KYC trading platform eXch. The exchange has previously denied allegations of laundering crypto on behalf of North Korea—and on the BitcoinTalk forum, said it has been the victim of “misleading statements” and FUD.

Zhou wrote that the coming week is “critical” to freeze funds before they start to clear through exchanges, as well as over-the-counter and peer-to-peer platforms.

Bybit recently launched an aggressive bounty program of up to $140 million as it “declared war on the Lazarus Group,” the state-sponsored hacking collective that has been linked to multiple multimillion-dollar exploits in the past.

Zhou’s update confirms that a total of $2.17 million has been paid out to 11 bounty hunters so far—led by the likes of Mantle, Paraswap and the on-chain sleuth ZachZBT.

Given Bybit has pledged to offer 10% of frozen funds as a reward, that tells us only a tiny fraction of the stolen crypto has been recovered.

Edited by Stacy Elliott.