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CoinDesk 2025-02-22 09:24:35

Crypto Exchanges Start to Fill Bybit's $1.4B Hole as Hackers Move Stolen Funds

Crypto exchange Bitget has transferred 40,000 ether (ETH), worth $105 million, to Bybit, offering crucial support to its industry counterpart in the wake of the over billion-dollar hack suffered by the exchange. The funds transferred are from Bitget's own reserves, not user deposits, which remain securely stored on the platform and can be cross checked through the proof of reserves, the exchange's CEO, Gracy Chen, said in a note shared with CoinDesk, while assuring more support if needed. "At Bitget we strongly believe in supporting the community and everyone contributing towards the growth of crypto," Chen said. A suspected North Korean entity drained approximately $1.4 billion in ether from Bybit on Friday. The hack prompted an unprecedented wave of withdrawal requests from users, with the exchange successfully processing 99% of them, effectively facing a significant market stress test. Part of the stolen funds started to move during Asian afternoon hours on Saturday with over 5,000 ETH moved through eXch mixer - a service that masks wallet address - before being sent to bridge protocol ChainFlip where the stash was converted to bitcoin (BTC). In an X post , ChainFlip said it couldn't block fund movements as it was a fully decentralized applications that relies on automated smart contracts, but that it had "turned off some frontend services to stop the flow." On the other hand, Bitget has blacklisted wallets tied to the hacker that drained ether worth millions from Bybit on Friday. "We will block any transactions flowing in from illicit addresses to the exchange once it has been monitored. Our team of security, and researchers, are currently tracking these activities," Chen said. Despite the hack, Bybit had managed to process over 350,000 withdrawal requests and has since restored normal withdrawal operations, per an X post.