Bybit CEO Says 77% Of Stolen $1.4 Billion Ethereum Still Traceable After Historic Hack: 'This And The Coming Week Is Critical'

Ben Zhou, the CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Bybit, has revealed that 77% of the funds stolen in a record-breaking hack are still traceable.

What Happened: According to a post on X by Zhou today, the upcoming week is critical for securing the funds, as they will begin clearing through exchanges, OTC, and P2P channels. The hackers stole 417,348 Ether (CRYPTO: ETH), worth nearly $1 billion, which remains traceable on the blockchain despite being transferred through the privacy-focused THORChain, a decentralized platform built for exchanging assets across multiple blockchains.

Nevertheless, 20% of the funds—approximately 79,655 ETH or $200 million—have become untraceable through ExCH. Zhou also stated that 3% of the hacked funds have been frozen.

A smaller sum of 40,233 ETH, equivalent to $100 million, moved through OKX's Web3 proxy, but 23,553 ETH, valued at $65 million, remains untraceable. Zhou revealed that the hackers exchanged 83% of the stolen ETH for BTC through THORChain, distributing it across 6,954 wallets, with an average of 1.71 Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) per wallet.

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Why It Matters: The $1.4 billion Ethereum theft from Bybit has not only sent shockwaves through the market but also revived a long-standing contentious debate—implementing a hard fork to recover hacked funds. The enormity of the hack, considered the biggest in cryptocurrency history, and the involvement of North Korea’s state-backed Lazarus Group have motivated these demands. The scale of the hack highlights the growing risk of state-sponsored cybercrime and the urgent need for stronger security measures in the blockchain space.

Blockchain technologist Samson Mow argued that rolling back the Ethereum chain would hinder Kim Jong Un-ruled North Korea from using the funds to fund its nuclear weapons program. At the same time, Aneirin Flynn, co-founder and CEO of FailSafe, spoke with Benzinga about the Bybit exploit, potential preventive strategies, and why an Ethereum rollback isn’t a feasible solution.

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