Bybit CEO Ben Zhou Announces Report on Tracing 1.4 Billion USD of Stolen Cryptocurrency, with 68.57% Still Traceable.
Ben Zhou, co-founder and CEO of the Bybit exchange, has just released an executive summary on the recovery status of approximately 1.4 billion USD (equivalent to 500,000 ETH) of stolen funds. This report provides a detailed look at the tracking progress and asset recovery efforts following the major hack.
According to Zhou, 68.57% of the stolen assets are still traceable, while 3.84% have been frozen through cooperation with partners and law enforcement. However, 27.59% of the funds have disappeared from the on-chain monitoring system, making tracking impossible.
The report indicates that most of the untraceable assets were transferred through mixing services, then bridged to other chains and ultimately moved to peer-to-peer (P2P) or over-the-counter (OTC) platforms – exchange forms that do not go through centralized exchanges.
Notably, Wasabi – a mixer frequently used by North Korea (DPRK) – was identified as the primary tool in this chain of behavior. A portion of bitcoin was "washed" here and then continued to circulate through other services like Cryptomixer, Tornado Cash, and Railgun.
Zhou also emphasized that 432,748 ETH (approximately 1.21 billion USD) was converted to Bitcoin through THORChain. Of this, 67.25% was converted to 10,003 BTC and dispersed across multiple wallets.
Regarding community tracking efforts, in the past 60 days, Bybit received 5,443 bounty reports, with 70 reports verified as valid. The exchange continues to expand its bounty campaign, calling for more blockchain tracking experts to help decode mixer activities and assist in recovering stolen assets.
The Bybit hack is becoming one of the most closely monitored incidents in cryptocurrency history, with its large-scale damage and unprecedented asset recovery efforts.
