In a tale that would make the great Gogol himself chuckle, our protagonist, Ben Zhou, CEO of Bybit, has spun a yarn most peculiar. It appears, dear readers, that a goodly portion of the pilfered digital gold—88% to be precise—is still within our reach, like a carrot dangled before a donkey. Yet, those wily hackers are employing the digital equivalent of a magic cloak, using Bitcoin mixers to vanish into the digital ether. 🕵️♂️
As of the 20th day of March, in the year of our Lord 2025, the sagacious Zhou has given us a glimpse into the arithmetic of thievery. A grand total of $1.4 billion worth of crypto coins, or 88.87% thereof, remains as traceable as a boisterous drunkard in a quiet library. Of this, a tidy sum of $1.23 billion has been transmuted into 12,836 Bitcoin (BTC) and scattered across 9,117 digital purses, each bulging with an average of 1.41 BTC. The hackers, it seems, are no strangers to the art of the scatterbrained escape. 🏦
Hacker started to use BTC mixers: 1. Wasbi 2. CryptoMixer 3. Railgun 4. TornadoCash
Total hacked funds of USD 1.4bn around 500k ETH. 88.87% remain traceable, 7.59% have gone dark, 3.54% have been frozen.
Breakdown: – 86.29% (440,091…
— Ben Zhou (@benbybit) March 20, 2025
The tale grows ever more curious! The funds, originally drained away in the form of Ethereum (ETH), were cunningly swapped for BTC. The alchemy was performed mainly through the cross-chain liquidity provider THORChain, which has been acting more like a stubborn mule than a helpful hand in halting the hackers’ laundering shenanigans. Even a core contributor to THORChain, in a huff, flung down his tools and departed in a cloud of dust. 🌪️
After a whirl through the mixers, the funds are funneled through various p2p peddlers. Zhou predicts this trend will spread like wildfire, and already, a pesky 7.59% has slipped into the shadows, as elusive as a ghost at midnight. Only a paltry 3.54% has been frozen, thanks to the heroic efforts of a band of digital do-gooders. 🎉
Among the heroes, the first tranche of the stolen loot, valued at a handsome $42.89 million, was frozen in but a single day—a testament to the power of teamwork. The likes of Tether, THORChain, ChangeNOW, FixedFloat, Avalanche, CoinEX, Bitget, and Circle, along with the exchanges Binance and Huobi, have joined forces like a band of merry vigilantes, guided by the keen eye of Elliptic, the blockchain analytics firm. 🦸♂️
In a side note, Zhou has shared that among the mountain of bounty reports submitted, a mere 63 out of 5012 have been deemed worthy. He pleads with the public to aid in deciphering the mixer’s transactions, calling it the “no.1 challenge” facing Bybit. One wonders if the rest were written by the same hands that now seek the reward? 🤔
For those with a keen eye and a quick mind, Bybit has launched a website where the addresses of the stolen funds’ wallets are tracked in real-time. A reward of 5% of the value of the frozen funds awaits those who can provide the necessary clues. It’s a treasure hunt, dear readers, with digital riches at stake! 🏆
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2025-03-20 13:39