Bybit Hack Sparks Crypto Comedy: Billion-Dollar Blunder đŸ€Ż

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What to know:

  • Blockchain data reveals $1.4 billion has vanished into the crypto void, with $200 million liquidated on decentralized exchanges. Truly a magician’s act! đŸȘ„
  • Bybit CEO Ben Zhou confirmed that the exchange’s Ethereum cold wallet was compromised. Ouch.
  • Ether tanks 4%—a little meltdown to spice up your portfolio drama. 📉

Once upon a blockchain, the cryptocurrency exchange Bybit saw $1.46 billion take a suspicious “vacation,” as spotted by detective ZachXBT. đŸ•”ïžâ€â™‚ïž

In this digital “heist of the century,” the elusive perpetrator pilfered 401,346 ETH (a mere $1.1 billion) from Bybit’s Ethereum cold wallet—yes, the supposedly ultra-secure one. How secure? Well, clearly, not enough! And as if sending ETH wasn’t fancy enough, staked ether (stETH) followed suit to a fresh wallet, which now seems eager to flood decentralized exchanges with mETH and stETH. Someone loves a fire sale! đŸ”„

So far, $200 million in stETH has been sold, making the hacker’s wallet both richer and poorer simultaneously. (Economics professors, take note!) Meanwhile, Bybit CEO Ben Zhou took to X (formerly Twitter, but let’s not complicate things) to lament the unfortunate “incident.”

“An identified hacker strolled into our ETH cold wallet, took control, and transferred it all to an address we’d prefer not to have met,” he shared. Cheerful tone not included.

But fear not, noble crypto enthusiasts! Zhou reassured users, “All other cold wallets are 100% secure. Pinky promise. Withdrawals? Still normal.” Transparent much? 🧐

Block detective ZachXBT added on Telegram a blunt yet obvious observation, “Yeah, it’s a security breach.” Thanks for clearing that up, Zach.

Bybit’s $1.46 billion calamity takes the dubious honor of being the biggest cryptocurrency hack in history (congrats?), outpacing Mt Gox’s $470 million blunder, CoinCheck’s $530 million oopsie, and even the Ronin Bridge’s $650 million bridge-collapse. 🚧

The crypto market reacted as you’d expect—poorly. BTC slumped 1.5%, ETH slipped 2%, and hodlers collectively sighed, “Not again.” đŸ˜©

UPDATE (15:44 UTC, Feb. 21): CEO Zhou’s wallet musings and some gruesome crypto hack stats have been added for extra chill.

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2025-02-21 19:20