You thought your billion in a cold wallet was safe...

Discussion in 'Crypto Assets' started by Pekelo, Feb 21, 2025.

  1. Pekelo

    Pekelo

    Well, you were wrong. Biggest ever crypto hack and also biggest ever theft, 1.4 billion in ETH:

    https://www.theblock.co/post/342709...k-shocks-crypto?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss

    "On Friday, hackers appeared to steal more than $1.4 billion in ETH from Bybit’s cold wallet, the exchange confirmed. It seems the hacker tricked Bybit’s ETH cold wallet signers into approving a malicious transaction to gain control of the wallet surreptitiously. "

    "This makes it the largest crypto theft of all time, by some margin," Elliptic co-founder and Chief Scientist Tom Robinson told The Block. "The next largest crypto theft would be the $611 million stolen from Poly Network in 2021. In fact it may even be the largest single theft of all time. We've labelled the thief's addresses in our software, to help to prevent these funds from being cashed-out through other exchanges."

    "Bybit has secured a “bridge loan” from unnamed partners to cover about 80% of the Ether it lost Friday in a $1.5 billion hack, CEO Ben Zhou said in a live stream on X.
    Bybit will not immediately buy Ether in order to replenish the lost crypto, Zhou added."

    ----------------------

    "Hot wallet wasn't hacked. Cold wallet wasn't hacked. Signing UI was hacked."

    Sure, but the end result was still emptying out a cold wallet.
     
    Last edited: Feb 21, 2025
  2. Pekelo

    Pekelo

    More technical explanation:

    "Sounds like the Hacker sent a request to update the smart contract instead of doing a routine transfer from the cold wallet contract. Multisig members signed it without checking.
    I'm guessing they aren't using any automation or wallet extension to check the request payload before signing.

    Update: The UI that displayed the transaction details was hacked to show a normal transfer"

    ----------------------------------

    "Seems like the exact copy of WazirX hack. So I’m guessing it’s North Korea again. Just surprised by how ByBit has $1.5B lying around to cover the shortfall."

     
    johnarb and beginner66 like this.
  3. mervyn

    mervyn

    an inside job?
     
  4. johnarb

    johnarb

    Morse code message from Bybit Founder: bitcoin only

     
  5. johnarb

    johnarb

    If ByBit shuts down, it could cause a liquidation event, similar to what happened in the past, i.e. FTX

    Bitcoin price being relatively strong, may become a safe haven asset to trade into, along with stablecoins

    If bitcoin price starts to crash, it can be a cascade of liquidations

    I have no idea what's going to happen in the short term, just pontificating

    strength begets strength; weakness begets weakness

     
    Last edited: Feb 22, 2025
    EdgeHunter, NoahA and schizo like this.
  6. Pekelo

    Pekelo

    Probably. They had to know the multi sig people and have access to their devices somehow.
     
  7. schizo

    schizo

    On top of that, if the stock market tanks, it could really end up as an avalanche. I hope not though. That would be too painful.
     
    EdgeHunter and johnarb like this.
  8. orbit23

    orbit23

    Ladies and gentleman, the future of finance.
     
  9. 2rosy

    2rosy

    Why do they have 1.5 billion in one wallet? Break it up so this doesn't happen
     
    EdgeHunter likes this.
  10. Tokenz

    Tokenz

    Korean hackers are no joke. Keep your money off the exchange, and into a hardware wallet, we're it belongs!
     
    #10     Feb 22, 2025