Key Takeaways
- Bybit CEO Ben Zhou confirmed the platform hack as he tried to calm the storm.
- Ben Zhou also confirmed that Bybit is Solvent and that all withdrawals work perfectly.
- The Bybit hack incident caused the BTC price to crash from its high of $99,500 to $97,000 in minutes.
In a developing story, top crypto exchange Bybit is suspected to have been hacked of over $1.4 billion following on-chain sleuth ZachXBT report after suspecting multiple withdrawals of Ethereum to an unknown wallet. This incident highlights the vulnerabilities of top crypto platforms and the cascading effect it has had on the general market as the price of Bitcoin (BTC) dropped from its high of $99,400 to a region of $97,000 as the news broke out.
What Happened To Bybit?
According to several reports, this attack was targeted at one of Bybit’s Ethereum’s (ETH) multi-signature cold wallets with whale alerts getting notifications of several withdrawals of ETH flowing out of Bybit wallet.
An official press release on Bybit X account highlights how the incident happened which states:
“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 interface, displaying the correct address while altering the underlying smart contract logic. As a result, the attacker was able to gain control of the affected ETH cold wallet and transfer its holdings to an unidentified address.
Our security team, alongside leading blockchain forensic experts and partners, is actively investigating the incident. Any teams with expertise in blockchain analytics and fund recovery who can assist in tracing these assets are welcome to collaborate with us.
We want to assure our users and partners that all other Bybit cold wallets remain fully secure. All client funds are safe, and our operations continue as usual without any disruption.
Transparency and security remain our top priorities, and we will provide updates asap”
Source – Bybit CEO Bwn Zhou on X
Bybit CEO Ben Zhou further solicited support in tracking the hacking incident and tweeted several times that Bybit is Solvent and would handle the losses as users’ funds are tied on 1:1 assets, with Bybit capable of bearing the losses. All other code wallets are secure except the hacked cold wallet, confirmed by Ben Zhou. The Bybit team is working hard around the clock to prevent such an incident from happening again.
Market Reaction To News
The aftermath of this attack on the Bybit platform was panic, as the price of Bitcoin and other crypto assets plunged. The price of BTC fell by over $3,000 within minutes of the news, as altcoins followed BTC’s direction.
BTC’s price looked strong above $99,400 as it broke its minor resistance to the upside after weeks of the market looking weak without strong volume to push it to the upside. BTC’s price would break its key resistance of $109,000 before going to new all-time highs.
