Bybit Declares War on Lazarus Group Following Major Hack
In a bold move, cryptocurrency exchange Bybit has officially declared a “war against Lazarus,” following a substantial hack that has shaken the crypto community. The exchange has launched an innovative website aimed at tracking the wallet addresses associated with the notorious North Korean hacking group, Lazarus, with the hope of crowd-sourcing investigative efforts. As an incentive, Bybit is offering a reward of 5% of any frozen assets that result from user submissions.
This declaration came directly from Bybit’s CEO, Ben Zhou, who expressed the company’s commitment in a recent social media post. He highlighted that the firm is initiating the first-ever bounty site dedicated to showing full transparency regarding the money laundering activities linked to Lazarus. Zhou stated that users can connect their wallets to the new platform to assist in tracing the stolen funds. He emphasized that once a submission leads to the freezing of funds, the bounty will be paid out immediately upon asset freezing.
“We have assembled a dedicated team to maintain and update this website,” Zhou remarked. “Our mission will not cease until we eliminate Lazarus and other bad actors in the industry. In the future, we plan to extend our support to other victims of Lazarus as well.”
At present, the website is actively tracking 6,338 addresses linked to the Lazarus group, with approximately $42.3 million already frozen—representing just over 3% of the total stolen assets. This comes in the wake of a staggering hack that left Bybit reeling, with estimates indicating losses nearing $1.5 billion. The fallout from this breach saw a significant downturn in digital asset prices across the market.
Reports have since confirmed that the Lazarus Group is indeed behind this unprecedented attack, which has been described as “the largest crypto theft of all time, by some margin.”
Bybit Loses $1.5B in Hack but Can Cover Loss, CEO Confirms
