I bet you've already heard details on the whole ByBit hack situation which happened not too long ago. This is on top of all the dips we're experiencing so to be honest crypto's image is a bit down right now but hey, it's crypto, things can change super fast.
One friend of mine made a short thread talking about all the newbies in the crypto community that just came in. Right from the start they're experiencing a dip and that's not encouraging. They would certainly need education on how crypto works otherwise they would think this is how it is, hacks and dips. But that's not true.
The North Korean Hackers just in case you are not familiar with them or the story are popularly known as the Lazarus Group. How the managed to pull of such a heist shocked me but they did. They stole $1.5 billion in crypto, and they've already made $300 million of it unrecoverable. That means unless they recover it, forget it.
How did they hack ByBit though? From the stories I heard in the news, they secretly changed a wallet address and that tricked ByBit into sending them 401,000 Ethereum coins.
This is why I actually say crypto is secured. The only chance they got was not putting in a malware or virus but by tricking the platform into giving them the crypto. Not your keys not your wallet but if you can make it your address then the money will be sent to you. That's exactly what happened.
The experts that have been assigned to track the stolen crypto are working extremely hard to get it before it disappears completely.
So far ByBit has replaced the stolen funds and they have launched a bounty program to track and freeze the stolen crypto.
I think that's a good initiative, and if someone can pull it off, not only will the person be the hero that saves the day but also will expose the hackers and also learn ways of defeating the hackers should incase something similar happen in the future.
What is the status of the bounty program now? Well guys, so far $40 million has been blocked, and the people that are helping.to track the stolen funds have earned $4 million in rewards.
But sadly not all crypto platforms are helping. One exchange called eXch, let over $90 million go through before stepping in. I can't boldly say they are involved, maybe it was a security precaution they were taking but 90 mill is way too much to let go.
The FBI has linked Lazarus Group to some past hacking activities and that includes the $600 million Ronin Bridge attack. The U.S. desperately wants them arrested, but unless they leave North Korea, the chances of that happening is still slim.
This is s sensitive situation in my opinion because anything between super power nations like North Korea and U.S can lead to third world war so I'm hoping everyone stays alarm and careful.