The Federal Bureau of Investigation has accused North Korean-backed hackers of stealing over $1.5 billion of the cryptocurrency, Ethereum, from a Dubai-based firm.
The theft happened in early March and targeted Bybit, one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world. The FBI identified a team of hackers identified by the names TraderTraitor and the Lazarus Group as being the ones involved in the hack.
According to the FBI, the hackers stole the cryptocurrency “through the dissemination of cryptocurrency trading applications that were modified to include malware that facilitates theft of cryptocurrency.”
Experts at Chainalysis, a private blockchain intelligence firm, called this hack the largest cryptocurrency theft in history. The hackers, TraderTraitor and the Lazarus Group stole more in this single heist than in the 47 other cryptocurrency robberies throughout 2024.
The FBI has formally accused North Korea of backing the hackers. Between 2017 and 2023, North Korea was involved in 58 cyberattacks, primarily against cryptocurrency companies, stealing approximately 3 billion in digital currencies.
The FBI attributes this hack to North Korean hackers after they were “rapidly” converting the stolen assets into Bitcoin and other digital currencies. In the past, North Korean hackers have laundered funds through cryptocurrency exchanges and Chinese banks, according to the federal indictment and the Treasury Department.
In the most recent incident, after stealing the funds from Bybut, North Korean hackers used decentralized exchanges and cross-chain bridges to convert a portion of the stolen Ether into Bitcoin. While the company was able to track the first initial transactions, each subsequent transaction shifting wallets and currencies makes the initial $1.5 billion nearly impossible to trace.
According to South Korea’s spy agency, North Korea desperately needs foreign currency to support its fragile economy and fund its nuclear program in the face of U.N. sanctions and North Korea’s strict border closures during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bybit co-founder and CEO, Ben Zhou, acknowledged the FBI’s announcement in a post on the social platform X, formally known as Twitter, by linking to a website offering $140 million in bounties for tracking the stolen crypto and getting it frozen by other exchanges.
Bybit stated the theft happened during a routine transfer of Ethereum that was “manipulated” by an attacker, causing the cryptocurrency to be transferred to an identified address.
