Wed, 26 Feb 2025

Wed, 26 Feb 2025 Crypto sleuths join hunt for $1.5bn stolen in biggest ever heist

ByBit is offering financial rewards to anyone who can spot criminals attempting to launder the stolen crypto.
A cryptocurrency trading platform called ByBit, which was recently targeted by hackers believed to be from North Korea's Lazarus Group, is crowdsourcing online bounty hunters to help recover some of its losses. The company was hit with an estimated $1.46 billion (£1.1 billion) theft last week. ByBit is offering cash rewards to anyone who can spot and prevent the stolen funds from being laundered online through a complex process. The platform's CEO, Ben Zhou, has launched a website where successful crypto sleuths will be listed on a live leaderboard and awarded 5% of the sum they help recover. The company is also working with crypto investigation firm Elliptic, which describes the initiative as a "really positive innovation" that can motivate talented blockchain investigators to track down stolen funds. However, some experts have expressed concerns about the impact on trust in the cryptocurrency industry. One exchange, eXch, has been accused of not cooperating with ByBit's efforts to recover the stolen funds, despite being linked to hundreds of millions of dollars in cryptoassets derived from criminal activity. The platform has allowed its users to swap cryptocurrencies anonymously and is notable for its lax regulations. ByBit plans to open up its bounty website to other victims of the Lazarus Group, which has been blamed for around $6 billion of crypto thefts in recent years.
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