Hackers that attacked Bybit used ThorChain to convert over 209,000 ETH into Bitcoin. This accounts for over half of the stolen funds.
Summary of Events
A group of hackers associated with North Korea's Lazarus stole over 400,000 ETH from the Bybit exchange along with related tokens. A significant portion of these assets was converted to Bitcoin via ThorChain. Hackers used over 3,900 transactions to move the funds within 115 hours post-attack.
ThorChain's and Participants' Reaction
ThorChain developers and some validators attempted to prevent money laundering but faced internal disagreements. Some community members argue that the platform is not decentralized enough to effectively combat such attacks. Nevertheless, ThorChain recorded its largest single-day trading volumes of over $737 million.
Implications and Future
Post-attack, hackers distributed the funds across multiple addresses and used decentralized exchanges to swap tokens for ETH. Bybit has offered a bounty to assist in freezing and recovering the stolen funds. However, significant recovery of assets has yet to be achieved.
The Bybit incident highlights the vulnerabilities of crypto exchanges and the need for enhanced scrutiny over decentralized platforms to prevent illicit transactions.
