Bybit CEO Ben Zhou has defined how hackers are turning to Bitcoin mixers to launder the $1.5 billion in Ethereum stolen from the trade final month.
In an replace shared on X on March 20, Zhou disclosed that 193 BTC, roughly $16 million, from the stolen funds, had been funneled by way of Wasabi Pockets earlier than being distributed throughout varied P2P distributors.
Along with Wasabi, Zhou disclosed that the hackers are utilizing different mixers, reminiscent of CryptoMixer, Railgun, and Twister Money.
He added:
“We consider this pattern will develop as extra funds will undergo mixers. Decoding mixer transactions is the no.1 problem we face now. If you happen to might help, please attain out.”
Crypto mixers permit customers to mix their crypto transactions with others, making tracing funds on public blockchains tough. Whereas privacy-conscious customers usually use these companies, cybercriminals have additionally leveraged them to hide illicit exercise.
Because of this, regulators have sanctioned platforms like Twister Money for his or her position in laundering stolen belongings.
Stolen funds are nonetheless partially traceable
Regardless of the continued laundering makes an attempt, a lot of the stolen belongings stay traceable.
Zhou confirmed that 88.87% of the stolen 500,000 ETH—price practically $1.5 billion—can nonetheless be tracked, 7.59% has been rendered untraceable, and three.54% has been frozen.
He additional detailed that 440,091 ETH, valued at roughly $1.23 billion, has been transformed into 12,836 BTC and distributed throughout 9,117 wallets.
Bybit has been actively investigating the breach, receiving 5,012 bounty stories over the previous month. Nonetheless, solely 63 supplied actionable intelligence. Zhou has urged extra bounty hunters to assist monitor belongings laundered by way of crypto mixers.
Whereas Bybit has remained operational following the assault, the incident’s aftermath continues to weigh on the trade.
On-chain knowledge reveals that Bybit’s market share dropped from practically 20% on Feb. 21 to round 5% by March 2. Nonetheless, the trade has since rebounded, climbing to 10% as of March 19, in line with Kaiko knowledge.
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