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ByBit Offers Bounty for Recovery of Stolen Cryptocurrency
A recent cyber heist has led one company to enlist the help of the public in recovering substantial losses. ByBit, a cryptocurrency trading platform, fell victim to what is believed to be the largest theft in history, with hackers linked to North Korea’s notorious Lazarus Group making off with $1.46 billion (£1.1 billion) in cryptocurrency.
The attackers are currently engaged in a complex scheme to liquidate the stolen funds, employing various methods to launder the cryptocurrency. In a bid to counteract this effort, ByBit has initiated a bounty program that incentivizes individuals to aid in tracking and stopping the cashing out of the stolen assets.
“Join us in the fight against Lazarus,” stated ByBit’s CEO Ben Zhou, inviting participation through a newly launched website that facilitates this bounty initiative.
Cryptocurrencies are managed in public wallets that can be monitored, allowing investigators a chance to trace the movements of the stolen funds as they are divided and funneled through different channels to obscure their origins.
The bounty website features a live leaderboard showcasing entities and individuals that have made successful identifications of the stolen coins. Participants in the bounty will receive 5% of the total amount they help to freeze, with an additional 5% awarded to the firms that take action on this information.
This site is already reflecting millions in rewards paid to successful trackers, underscoring the serious effort being made to reclaim the stolen assets. “We have dedicated a team to consistently monitor and update this site; we will not cease our efforts until Lazarus and other malicious actors are dealt with,” Zhou declared.
Experts in the cryptocurrency investigation field, such as Tom Robinson of Elliptic, have lauded this initiative as a “significant innovation.” He noted that the bounty would likely incentivize many skilled blockchain investigators to pursue the recovery of the stolen funds vigorously.
However, there are concerns. Louise Abbott, a crypto fraud partner at Keystone Law, cautioned that this incident could further erode trust in an already volatile industry. She emphasized that if such a colossal breach could happen on the world’s second-largest exchange, it raises alarm about future vulnerabilities.
The absence of regulatory bodies like central banks in cryptocurrency transactions complicates the situation for victims, leaving companies like ByBit to rely on the goodwill of other crypto firms to act on their behalf. Unfortunately, not all companies have been responsive.
ByBit has taken further steps to publicize companies that do not assist in the recovery efforts, including one exchange, eXch, which has reportedly refused to cooperate. Elliptic’s research points to eXch as a platform notorious for facilitating anonymous conversions of cryptoassets.
In a blog post, Elliptic highlighted that considerable amounts of dollar value in cryptocurrencies, reportedly linked to illicit activities, have passed through the eXch platform.
Currently, approximately $75 million has been tracked as flowing through eXch from the ByBit breach. Nevertheless, eXch has yet to comment on this situation.
Looking ahead, ByBit plans to extend its bounty program to other victims of North Korean cybercrimes, reflecting the widespread impact of the Lazarus Group’s activities, which are estimated to involve around $6 billion in crypto thefts in recent years. The stolen assets are purportedly used by the North Korean regime to circumvent international sanctions and enhance its military capabilities, though North Korea has never formally acknowledged any affiliation with the Lazarus Group.
Source
www.bbc.com