In a recent announcement, cryptocurrency exchange Bybit revealed that it had fallen victim to a sophisticated attack, resulting in the theft of a substantial amount of Ethereum (ETH) from one of its offline wallets.

Bybit’s CEO and co-founder, Ben Zhou, disclosed in a livestream that the hackers managed to steal approximately 401,346 ETH, which, at the time of the incident, was valued at around $1.4 billion.

According to crypto security firm Elliptic and researcher ZachXBT, the total value of the stolen ETH is estimated to be around $1.4 billion, making this incident the largest known crypto theft in history. For context, previous notable crypto breaches include the Ronin Network and Poly Network hacks, which resulted in losses of $624 million and $611 million, respectively, as reported by Rekt, a platform that tracks web3 and crypto breaches.

Elliptic’s co-founder and chief scientist, Tom Robinson, noted that this incident may be the largest single theft of all time, surpassing even non-crypto related thefts. He told TechCrunch, “In fact, it may even be the largest single theft of all time.”

Prior to this incident, the largest bank robbery on record was the withdrawal of approximately $1 billion from the Central Bank of Iraq, as reported by World Finance.

Ben Zhou explained on X that the hacker gained control of one of the company’s cold wallets, which are designed to store cryptocurrency offline, and transferred the funds to a warm wallet, which is connected to the internet.

When contacted for comment, Bybit spokesperson Tony Au referred to Zhou’s public statements. In one of his posts, Zhou assured that the company is “solvent” and capable of covering the loss, even if the stolen funds cannot be recovered.

Bybit, headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, had an estimated total asset value of $16 billion as of last week, according to CoinMarketCap.

To put this incident into perspective, the total amount of crypto stolen by hackers in 2024 was around $2.2 billion, as reported by Chainalysis. In 2023, the total value of stolen crypto was approximately $2 billion, according to multiple estimates.