1.5 billion dollars vanished in the largest cryptocurrency heist in history

ETH is the second most important digital currency, now valued at over 460 billion dollars, behind Bitcoin.

Bybit, which has over 60 million users worldwide, claims to be struggling with a “liquidity shortage” following the theft. However, the cryptocurrency company has already fully bridged the ETH gap after obtaining a bridge loan from its partners.

«A new proof of reserves audit report will be published very soon to show that Bybit has once again returned to a 1:1 ratio on client assets thanks to a Merkle tree verification», announces Ben Zhou, the CEO of the company, in a message posted on X.

Ten hours after the hack, Bybit reported receiving a total of over 350,000 withdrawal requests, an unprecedented occurrence for the company.

Bybit has ensured that deposits and withdrawals made on its platform have returned to normal levels the next day.

The value of ETH dropped by nearly 4% following the announcement of the hack, but it has since recovered to its previous levels, The Guardian also reports.

Bybit has called upon the «brightest minds» in cybersecurity and cryptographic analysis to help recover the 1.5 billion dollars stolen, according to the company.

As a reward, it plans to offer 10% of the recovered amount, which could amount to 150 million dollars if it is recovered in full.

Mr. Zhou explained via a post on X that the hacker took control of this specific ETH wallet and transferred all the funds.

Indeed, hackers targeted an ‘Ethereum cold wallet,’ a type of offline digital safe that typically allows users to keep their digital assets secure.