BYBIT cryptocurrency exchange announced a large-scale hunt for hackers, who abducted more than $1.4 billion in Ethereum and other tokens. In an attempt to block the assets of criminals and find the guilty, the company launched the Lazarus Bounty platform, offering a remuneration of up to $140 million for the help of monitoring the stolen means.
Bybit introduced a special dashboard, where users can report suspicious transactions and monitor which market participants behave honestly and which are trying to hide the stolen assets. According to Ben Zhou, general director of the company, transparency in the blockchain becomes the main tool for the fight against cybercrime. He emphasized that they will certainly find fraudsters, and justice will be quick.
In his statement on the social networks Zhou declared “war” the North Korean hacker group Lazarus, which analysts suspect of the organization of this attack. The Lazarus Bounty platform has already recorded the movements of the stolen means and detail the measures taken by various companies for freezing assets. According to the latest data, about 3% of the stolen assets – $42 million – have already managed to block.
The Lazarus Bounty award system is built on the principle of the rating: the more benefits the information brings, the higher the potential reward. Bybit also consults with the Security Council, which included the main specialists in protecting the largest blockchain platforms.
Among the organizations actively helping in the investigation, the issuers of Tether and Circle stablecoins, as well as large cryptocurrency exchanges that have frozen agents moved hackers. According to Chainalysis analysts, in 2024, North Korean groups made hacks worth more than $1.3 billion, and in 2023 $660 million.
Bybit, one of the largest centralized exchanges, monthly visited by more than 26 million users, continues to restore the balance after the attack. To cover losses, loans, internal reserves and additional purchases of ETH were attracted. Over the past day, the platform has processed more than $6 billion trading operations.
The Lazarus Bounty program can become a precedent for the industry, showing how crypto platforms can act together to block illegal activities and fight hacker attacks. Bybit gives a clear signal: cybercriminals will not be able to dispose of stolen assets with impunity.