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Cryptocurrency exchange Bybit recently revealed that hackers had stolen digital tokens valued at approximately $1.5 billion, which researchers have deemed the largest crypto heist in history.
According to Bybit CEO Ben Zhou, the stolen cryptocurrency was taken from a “cold wallet,” a digital wallet typically stored offline, which is considered more secure and was used for ether tokens.
Blockchain research firm Elliptic stated that the hack surpassed the previous largest crypto heist by more than double and is “almost certainly the single largest known theft of any kind in all time.”
The crypto industry has been plagued by a series of thefts, raising concerns about the security of customer funds, with hacking hauls totaling over $2 billion in 2024 – the fourth consecutive year where proceeds have exceeded $1 billion.
Here are some of the other significant thefts that have affected the industry since the birth of bitcoin in 2008.
In August 2021, hackers stole around $610 million from Poly Network, a platform that enables peer-to-peer token transactions. The hackers behind the heist later returned nearly all of the stolen funds.
The hack highlighted vulnerabilities in the burgeoning decentralized finance (DeFi) sector, where users lend, borrow, and save in digital tokens, bypassing traditional financial gatekeepers such as banks and exchanges.
RONIN NETWORK
In March 2022, hackers stole cryptocurrency worth approximately $540 million from a blockchain project linked to the popular online game Axie Infinity.
Ronin, a network that allows the transfer of crypto coins across different blockchains, reported that hackers stole 173,600 ether tokens and 25.5 million USD Coin tokens.
COINCHECK
In January 2018, hackers stole cryptocurrency valued at around $530 million from Tokyo-based exchange Coincheck. The thieves attacked one of Coincheck’s “hot wallets” – a digital folder stored online – to drain the funds, drawing attention to security concerns at exchanges.
South Korea’s intelligence agency suggested at the time that a North Korean hacking group may have been behind the heist.
MT. GOX
In one of the earliest and most high-profile crypto hacks, bitcoin worth close to $500 million was stolen from the Mt.Gox exchange in Tokyo – then the world’s largest – between 2011 and 2014.
Mt.Gox, which once handled 80% of the world’s bitcoin trade, filed for bankruptcy in early 2014 after the hack was revealed, with approximately 24,000 customers losing access to their funds.
WORMHOLE
DeFi site Wormhole was hit by a $320 million heist last month, with hackers making off with 120,000 digital tokens connected to the second-largest cryptocurrency, ether.
The crypto arm of Chicago-based Jump Trading, which had acquired the developer behind Wormhole the previous year, later replaced the funds “to make community members whole and support Wormhole as it continues to develop.”
(Reporting by Tommy Reggiori Wilkes, Tom Wilson, and Elizabeth Howcroft; Editing by Christina Fincher)
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