On 21 February 2025, attackers stole crypto worth about $1.46 billion at incident-time prices from one of Bybit’s Ethereum multisignature cold wallets. The theft involved a deceptive Safe wallet signing process, according to Bybit’s published account; it was not a hack of Ethereum’s blockchain or consensus protocol. Bybit called it the industry’s largest heist at the time, but the available evidence does not establish that it remains the largest ever.
What happened in the Bybit hack?
Bybit said it was making a routine transfer from an Ethereum multisignature cold wallet to a warm wallet when attackers deceived the people signing the transaction. The resulting approval changed the cold wallet’s smart-contract logic and enabled unauthorized transfers. Bybit reported that the stolen assets were then split among 39 addresses. These details come from Bybit’s published timeline, not an independent reconstruction here. Bybit’s incident timeline was published on 3 March 2025.
| Milestone | Bybit’s reported account |
|---|---|
| 21 February 2025, 13:30 UTC | Bybit began a routine transfer from an Ethereum multisignature cold wallet to a warm wallet. |
| 21 February 2025, 14:13 UTC | An attacker exploited the Safe multisig interface and deceived signers; the wallet’s smart-contract logic was changed and its funds moved without authorization. |
How did hackers steal about $1.5 billion in Ethereum?
Bybit’s preliminary forensic update, published on 26 February 2025, summarized findings from Sygnia Labs and Verichains: Safe developer credentials had been compromised, allowing unauthorized access to Safe{Wallet} infrastructure and a deceptive transaction to be presented for approval. Bybit said the investigators found no indication that Bybit’s own infrastructure was compromised. This is Bybit’s account of preliminary third-party findings, not a final independent ruling. Read Bybit’s forensic update.
The reported failure was therefore at the wallet-interface and signing layer: signers approved a transaction that did not reflect the action they believed they were authorizing. A multisignature wallet requires multiple approvals, but that safeguard cannot protect funds if the transaction details shown to signers have been manipulated or misrepresented. The evidence here does not establish that a hardware wallet alone would have prevented this incident.
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Cold wallet, warm wallet, and Ethereum are different parts of the story
- Cold wallet: Bybit’s term for the Ethereum wallet from which the funds were being transferred.
- Warm wallet: The destination wallet in the routine transfer described by Bybit.
- Safe multisig interface: The wallet-signing interface Bybit said was exploited to deceive signers.
- Ethereum network: The blockchain processed the transactions; this incident was not a compromise of Ethereum’s consensus protocol.
What assets were stolen, and what was the reported loss?
Bybit’s incident timeline listed these asset amounts and their estimated values at the time. The dollar figures are historical incident-time estimates, not current valuations.
| Asset | Amount reported | Bybit’s incident-time estimate |
|---|---|---|
| ETH | 401,347 ETH | $1.12 billion |
| stETH | 90,375 stETH | $253.16 million |
| cmETH | 15,000 cmETH | $44.13 million |
| mETH | 8,000 mETH | $23 million |
| Total | Four asset types | About $1.46 billion |
The Associated Press reported the theft at roughly $1.5 billion on 21 February 2025, a rounded contemporaneous figure for the same incident—not a separate estimate of another theft. Associated Press coverage.
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Was Ethereum hacked?
No. The reported incident concerned Bybit’s wallet controls and the Safe signing interface used in a transfer. It does not describe a breach of Ethereum’s consensus rules or a failure of the blockchain itself. Saying “Ethereum hack” can be convenient shorthand for a theft involving ETH, but it can mislead readers about where the compromise occurred.
Another Ethereum-related headline is a separate case: the US Department of Justice announced charges in 2024 against two brothers accused of a $25 million transaction-ordering attack. That case was not the Bybit cold-wallet theft. The DOJ announcement.
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Who did Bybit say was responsible?
Bybit attributed the attack to North Korea’s Lazarus Group in its incident timeline. The primary materials cited here do not include a law-enforcement attribution, so that should be understood as Bybit’s attribution rather than an independently established conclusion. Bybit’s timeline.
Did Bybit customers lose their funds?
Bybit said a Hacken review completed on 23 February 2025 found sufficient reserves for the customer assets in scope, and that it restored a 1:1 reserve ratio within 72 hours. That is Bybit’s description of a dated review covering in-scope assets; it is not a continuing guarantee about the exchange’s reserves. Bybit’s proof-of-reserves statement, published on 24 February 2025, describes that review.
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Was it the biggest crypto heist in history?
Bybit described the incident as the industry’s largest heist at the time, and the Associated Press reported a roughly $1.5 billion theft when it happened. Those sources support a time-qualified description, not a definitive all-time ranking as of October 2026. Bybit later published a retrospective account on 8 April 2025. Bybit’s retrospective. The sources cited here also do not establish a final recovered amount or the current disposition of all stolen funds.
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