Leading Bitcoin Exchange Bybit is acting decisively following one of the biggest industry cyber heists. CEO Ben Zhou announced a full-scale fight against cybercriminals after hackers connected to North Korea managed to pilfer over $1.4 billion in digital assets from the site.
Zhou recently revealed a bounty program meant to encourage people and companies to monitor and retrieve pilfers of money. With an initial bounty fund of $140 million, the program awards up to 10% for effective interceptions. Those who freeze illegally moved money can get 5% of the assets reclaimed back off.
“We are dedicated to removing negative industry players,” Zhou said. “Our crew will constantly update the bounty platform to ensure responsibility and help other victims of cyber theft.”
The notorious Lazarus Group was found by security analysts to be the offenders causing the hack. Accostolen tokenso reports, among other ERC-20 tokens, the pilfers included liquid-staked Ethereum (stETH), Mantle Staked ETH (mETH), and others. Acting quickly, Bit corrected damaged accounts and made sure users’ assets stayed whole.
Hacker events have long dogged the crypto sector; cybercriminals connected to North Korea allegedly have stolen over $3 billion from exchanges since 2017. More important in history than even the $600 million Ronin Bridge hack of 2022 is the Bybit attack.
While some companies bargain with hackers to get money back-off, Bybit is positioned as a fierce opponent against cyber dangers and is acting more aggressively. Experts caution, meanwhile, that such action might make the trade a future target for reprisals.
Blockchain security companies claim that crypto-related frauds and phishing campaigns remain a serious concern even if the general count of hacks since 2022 is down. Through a new benchmark for proactive security in the digital asset arena, Bitwise’s bounty effort may discourage the next intrusions.
Bybit is strengthening its dedication to security and openness in the crypto ecosystem by gathering the Web3 community to stand united against cybercrime with the release of its bounty platform.
