Hackers stole nearly $1.5 billion in cryptocurrencies from the Bybit exchange.

The cryptocurrency exchange Bybit has reported a hacking attack. Hackers gained control of one of its offline wallets – Ethereum – and withdrew approximately $1.5 billion from it.

Bloomberg reports this news.

According to online analyst ZachXBT, assets worth around $1.46 billion were withdrawn from the wallet following a series of suspicious transactions.

Research firm Arkham Intelligence confirmed the leak of about $1.4 billion from the exchange, adding that “funds began to move to new addresses where they are being sold.”

Analytical company Elliptic stated that this breach is the largest in the history of cryptocurrency thefts, surpassing the previous “record” of $611 million stolen from Poly Network in 2021.

Bybit's CEO Ben Zhou stated that the exchange has taken bridge loans and provided approximately 80% of the funding necessary to cover the losses. At the same time, Bybit will attempt to recover the funds and take necessary legal actions against the hackers.

Founded in 2018, Bybit is one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world. It processes over $36 billion in average daily trading volume.

According to CoinMarketCap data, prior to the hacking attack, Bybit had assets worth approximately $16.2 billion, making the stolen amount equivalent to about 9% of its total assets.