North Korean hackers behind the $1.4 billion Bybit hack control more than 11,000 cryptocurrency wallets used to launder stolen funds, according to blockchain analytics firm Elliptic. On Feb. 25, four days after the Bybit exploit,

The Lazarus Group, a cybercrime syndicate linked to North Korea, has long been a thorn in the side of the crypto industry. Since 2017, the group has stolen over $6 billion in digital assets, funneling the proceeds into the country’s ballistic missile program. The Bybit heist alone accounts for nearly a quarter of that total.

Following the revelation Friday from cryptocurrency exchange firm Bybit that hackers stole digital tokens worth about $1.5 billion – in what may be the biggest crypto heist of all time – CEO Ben Zhou wrote on X Sunday that it has replenished its reserves. Bybit was able to do this through a mix of emergency loans and large deposits.

On February 21, a major cryptocurrency exchange reported a sophisticated hack that stole around US$1.5 billion (€1.39 billion) in digital currency, making it one of the biggest online thefts ever. The affected company,