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Date: 2025-02-25 17:21:43
Bybit, a cryptocurrency exchange based in Dubai, has announced a new bounty program to strengthen its defense against the Lazarus Group and aid in the recovery of stolen funds.
Ben Zhou, CEO of Bybit, revealed that the exchange is offering a 5% bounty to any platform, cryptocurrency mixer, or individual who helps in freezing assets that were stolen last week.
The initial version of lazarusbounty.com enables anyone to sign up as a bounty hunter using their cryptocurrency wallet. It also displays a live ranking of good and bad actors, with their response times made public.
"You wouldn't want to be on the bad actor list. It's a record of you aiding in the facilitation of sanctioned transactions," Zhou cautioned.
Bybit suffered a loss of over 400,000 Ether (ETH) worth nearly $1.5 billion last Friday, which may be the largest financial exploit in history. The attack originated from a hijacked multi-signature transaction, and blockchain investigator ZachXBT identified the Lazarus Group of North Korea as the responsible party.
Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic noted that Lazarus had started phase two of its laundering process, dividing ill-gotten gains across numerous wallets and transferring assets to other blockchains like bitcoin.
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The cybercriminal organization also utilizes non-KYC services such as eXch to anonymize transactions. Although eXch denied allegations that Lazarus was using its platform to launder stolen Bybit assets, ZachXBT continued to investigate the protocol, pointing out dubious practices by the service.
Despite Bybit employing various recovery tactics, the exchange has already covered the losses through loans and strategic partnerships. Withdrawal processing times have returned to normal, despite congestion following the attack.
Bybit has so far recovered $43 million, with help from Mantle, mETH developers, and SEAL 911, a coalition of white-hat security professionals. Tether also assisted in freezing $181,000 in stolen funds in its stablecoin USDT (USDT).
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