Bybit CEO Ben Zhou reported that 88% of the stolen funds from the exchange is still traceable, but hackers are ramping up obfuscation efforts with Bitcoin mixers.
As of 20 March, Ben Zhou’s latest executive summary of Bybit’s stolen funds reveals that 88.87% of the stolen $1.4 billion worth of crypto is still traceable. Of this, 86.29%, equivalent to $1.23 billion, have been converted into 12,836 Bitcoin (BTC) and spread across 9,117 wallets, averaging 1.41 BTC each. According to Ben Zhou, the hackers started to use Bitcoin mixers to scramble the transaction history of the stolen funds.
The funds were originally siphoned in Ethereum (ETH), and then converted into BTC. The conversion was mainly done through cross-chain liquidity provider THORChain, which came under scrutiny earlier for its unwillingness to collaborate in halting the hackers’ laundering activities. A core THORChain contributor even resigned in protest.
After going through mixers, the funds are funneled through various p2p vendors. Ben Zhou said that this trend will likely grow as more funds are processed through mixers. Already, 7.59% have gone dark, meaning they cannot be traced anymore.
Only 3.54% have been frozen as of the latest report. The first tranche of the stolen funds valued at $42.89 million was frozen in just one day thanks to the coordinated action of Tether, THORChain, ChangeNOW, FixedFloat, Avalanche, CoinEX, Bitget, and Circle. Additionally, Binance and Huobi exchanges froze some of the accounts linked to the stolen funds, based on intelligence provided by blockchain analytics firm Elliptic.
Alongside the fund status update, Zhou reported that 63 of 5012 bounty reports submitted in the past month were deemed valid. He also reiterated plea for helping to decode mixer transactions, stating that it remains “the no.1 challenge” Bybit is facing right now.
The live tracking of the stolen funds’ wallet addresses can be seen on the website launched by Bybit to help crowdsource fund recovery efforts. Individuals who provide intel that leads to freezing funds in those wallets will be rewarded with 5% of the value of the frozen funds as part of Bybit’s bounty program.
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