Coindesk

Major cryptocurrency exchange Bybit has seen total outflows of over $5.5 billion after it suffered a near $1.5 billion hack that saw hackers, believed to be from North Korea’s Lazarus Group, drain its ether cold wallet.The total assets tracked on wallets associated with the exchange plunged from around $16.9 billion to $11.2 billion at the time of writing, according to data from DeFiLlama. The exchange is now looking to understand exactly what happened.In an X spaces session, Bybit’s CEO Ben Zhou revealed that shortly after the incident, he called for “all hands on deck” to serve their clients with processing withdrawals and responding to inquiries about what was going on.During the session, Zhou revealed that the security breach saw the...

The price of the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency, ether (ETH), has risen by more than 2.3% in the last 24 hours, while the broader CoinDesk 20 Index has risen by just 0.76% during the same period. Bitcoin is down around 0.3%.The rise comes amid reports that Bybit, the cryptocurrency exchange that was hacked for $1.5 billion worth of ether and staked ether by North Korean hacking group Lazarus, has moved 100 million USDT into new addresses and moved half of that into addresses to purchase 36,900 ETH over-the-counter.The funds, worth around $101 million, were then moved to addresses tagged as belonging to the cryptocurrency exchange, crypto journalist Colin Wu reported, citing, Arkham Intelligence data.Bybit’s CEO Ben Zhou reportedly said in an...

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is closing its investigation into major non-fungible token marketplace OpenSea, the platform’s founder and CEO Devin Finzer said on social media.The regulator issued a Wells notice against OpenSea in August 2024, indicating it was planning on pursuing an enforcement action against it. The regulator alleged the platform may have been operating as an unregistered securities marketplace. The SEC’s move comes as the regulator is slated to vote on a deal negotiated with Coinbase to drop its lawsuit against the exchange, which is seen as a boon for the cryptocurrency industry and NFT creators.“This is a win for everyone who is creating and building in our space. Trying to classify NFTs as securities would have...

The Bybit hacker, supposedly a North Korean entity, is now one of the world's largest ether holders, which may have bullish implications for the cryptocurrency's spot price.According to data from Arkham Intelligence and Coinbase executive Connor Grogan, this malicious actor holds 489,000 ETH, valued at approximately $1.34 billion, constituting about 0.4% of ether's total supply, making it the 14th-largest Ether holder globally. That puts the hacker ahead of the Ethereum Foundation, Ethereum's CEO Vitalik Buterin and Fidelity. It's important to note that the addresses linked to this entity are being closely monitored and backlisted by exchanges, which means the hacker will likely struggle to offload these coins in the market.In simpler terms, the hacked ether supply is likely lost permanently....

Crypto exchange Bitget has transferred 40,000 ether (ETH), worth $105 million, to Bybit, offering crucial support to its industry counterpart in the wake of the over billion-dollar hack suffered by the exchange.The funds transferred are from Bitget's own reserves, not user deposits, which remain securely stored on the platform and can be cross checked through the proof of reserves, the exchange's CEO, Gracy Chen, said in a note shared with CoinDesk, while assuring more support if needed."At Bitget we strongly believe in supporting the community and everyone contributing towards the growth of crypto," Chen said.A suspected North Korean entity drained approximately $1.4 billion in ether from Bybit on Friday. The hack prompted an unprecedented wave of withdrawal requests from users,...