Bybit CEO Ben Zhou said that the exchange will try all available means to get the stolen funds back — including a bounty program for anyone aiding in the return of the funds, working with law enforcement, and talking with the Ethereum Foundation to explore possible solutions.
In a Feb. 22 X Spaces, Zhou was asked if he supported a rollback of the Ethereum blockchain to a state before the Feb.21 Lazarus Group hack, which would invalidate the stolen funds. The Bybit CEO responded:
“I’m not sure if it’s one man’s decision. Based on the spirit of blockchain, maybe it should be a voting process to see what the communities want, but I am not not sure.”
The Ethereum blockchain was “rolled back” following the 2016 DAO hack, which left approximately $60 million in ETH drained from The DAO.
This hack prompted a hard fork that split the Ethereum blockchain into “Ethereum Classic” (ETC), which includes the illicit transactions and the proof-of-stake chain considered to be the main Ethereum (ETH) network today.
Funds associated with the Bybit hacker. Source: Arkham Intelligence
Related: Lazarus Group consolidates Bybit funds into Phemex hacker wallet
Lazarus moves stolen funds as Bybit announces bounty program
According to onchain analytics firm Lookonchain, the Lazarus Group currently holds approximately 489,395 ETH, valued at roughly $1.3 billion, and 15,000 Mantle Restaked ETH (cmETH) in 54 total wallets.
The hacking group, believed to be tied to North Korea, has been shifting the stolen funds between wallets to obfuscate the source of the money and launder the funds onchain.
On Feb. 22, Bybit announced a 10% bounty program, or up to $140 million, for white hat hackers aiding in recovering the stolen crypto from the threat actors.
The Bybit CEO also expressed deep gratitude to industry firms and executives for aiding the exchange in the aftermath of the largest crypto hack in history.
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino announced the stablecoin issuer froze 181,000 USDt (USDT) following the hack, and Bitget CEO Gracy Chen said that the exchange would block any transactions coming from wallets associated with the Lazarus Group.
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