ByBit Suffers Largest Crypto Hack Ever with $1.5 Billion Stolen

The exploit has primarily affected staked ETH assets.

By: Squiffs • February 21, 2025

ByBit, the second-largest centralized exchange by trading volume, is experiencing a security exploit, according to onchain sleuth ZachXBT.

The hack is the largest exploit in crypto to date, 140% bigger than the second-largest $625 million exploit of the Ronin bridge. Following this security breach, 2025 is set to outpace 2024 in terms of the total amount of crypto lost to hacks. $2.2 billion was stolen from crypto platforms in 2024, according to Chainalysis, and this Bybit hack alone brings 2025 to nearly 70% of the 2024 total in less than three months.

ZachXBT reported the attack at 10:20 EST. The exploit has primarily affected staked ETH assets. So far, almost $1.5 billion of mETH and stETH is being swapped on decentralized exchanges (DEXs) for ETH, according to XBT. DeFiLlama’s Bybit TVL data confirms $1.4 billion in total outflows so far.

the-defiant — ByBit Flows and TVL - DeFiLlama

Ben Zhou, the CEO and co-founder of ByBit reassured users who may be worried about the possibility of a larger hack in an X post.

“This Hacker took control of the specific ETH cold wallet we signed and transferred all ETH in the cold wallet to this unidentified address. Please rest assured that all other cold wallets are secure,” said Zhou.

Zhou also asserted that Bybit remains solvent and can cover the loss if the stolen assets are not recovered.

ZachXBT said in his Telegram group, “My sources confirm it’s a security incident.”

ETH has dropped sharply since the exploit, down 3% in the last hour to $2,716, from $2,825. The rest of the market is also sliding, with BTC dropping by 1% and SOL dropping by 2.5% in the last hour.