Cryptocurrency exchange Bybit said Friday (Feb. 21) that a cyberattacker stole some of its holdings.
In its posts on X about the incident, the company did not say how much was taken.
Bloomberg reported Friday that analysts estimate the loss to total nearly $1.5 billion worth of tokens.
Rob Behnke, co-founder and executive chairman of blockchain security firm Halborn, told Bloomberg the hack was likely the “largest incident ever, not just crypto.”
Bybit said in a said in a post on X that the attacker was able to transfer some of the firm’s holdings to an unidentified address after gaining control of one of Bybit’s Ethereum (ETH) cold wallets when it was executing a transfer to one of its warm wallets.
The company’s security team is working with blockchain forensic experts to investigate the incident and trace the assets, according to the post.
“We want to assure our users and partners that all other Bybit cold wallets remain fully secure,” the post said. “All client funds are safe, and our operations continue as usual without any disruption.”
Bloomberg reported that Zhou said during a livestream on X that Bybit’s withdrawals were still open and that the exchange had processed over 70% of the withdrawal requests it received after the hack.
Bybit is one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges, is headquartered in Dubai and is not available in the U.S., according to the report.
With about $16.2 billion in assets on its exchange before being hacked, the stolen tokens amounted to about 9% of its total assets, the report said.
Bloomberg reported later Friday that the prices of the two largest cryptocurrencies — bitcoin and ether — dipped as traders reacted to news of the hack at Bybit but remained within the range at which they have traded this month.
This news came about a month after Bybit said its Bybit Pay solution is live in Brazil and integrates with the Brazilian Pix instant payment system, enabling users to make payments in both fiat currency and cryptocurrency.
