News 
March 4, 2025 
3 min. 
On February 21, 2025, cryptocurrency exchange Bybit suffered a cyberattack that resulted in the theft of approximately $1.4 billion in Ethereum, marking the largest crypto heist in history. During the investigation, Bybit CEO Ben Zhou revealed that 20% of the stolen funds could not be traced, raising concerns about the advanced methods used by criminals to hide transactions.
Most of the assets can still be monitored, but a significant portion has vanished in transactions that are impossible to track. Bybit assures its customers that their funds remain secure and that measures are being taken to minimize the impact. Experts warn that the coming weeks will be crucial to attempt to freeze the funds before they are laundered through crypto exchanges and P2P platforms (direct transactions between users without intermediaries).
Criminals Convert Ethereum to BTC and Evade Monitoring Systems
The initial investigation indicates that 83% of the stolen funds were converted to Bitcoin and distributed across nearly 7,000 different wallets. THORChain, a decentralized protocol that enables cryptocurrency conversion without requiring a centralized exchange, was the primary tool hackers used to swap Ethereum for BTC, making it easier to move assets without leaving direct traces.
Approximately 77% of the funds are still traceable, but 20% have been concealed using sophisticated money laundering methods. Part of this amount passed through a decentralized platform identified as “ExCH,” while another significant portion was moved through OKX’s Web3 proxy, a system that hides the origin of funds when used in decentralized services. To track the remaining amount, investigators depend on additional information from these platforms, but no official response has been provided yet.
So far, 11 entities have collaborated with Bybit to freeze stolen assets, including Mantle, Paraswap, and on-chain analyst ZachXBT, a specialist in cryptocurrency transaction tracking. As a result, $2.1 million in rewards have been paid to bug hunters and blockchain security experts who helped contain the damage.
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The case highlights critical vulnerabilities in the crypto sector and reignites debates on regulation and digital security. While investors monitor efforts to recover the funds, the market closely watches possible impacts on Bitcoin’s price, which may fluctuate as new details emerge about the extent of the theft and the chances of asset recovery.
