On March 20th, Bybit’s CEO, Ben Zhou, provided insights into a significant breach that resulted in the theft of $1.4 billion, approximately 500,000 ETH. The post detailed that the assailants utilized several sophisticated Bitcoin mixers, including Wasabi, CryptoMixer, Railgun, and TornadoCash. Of the total stolen assets, an impressive 88.87% remains traceable, while 7.59% has entered dark pools, and 3.54% has been immobilized. A staggering 86.29% of the stolen funds—equating to 440,091 ETH or about $1.23 billion—was converted to 12,836 BTC and dispersed across 9,117 wallets, averaging 1.41 BTC per wallet.
Notably, 193 BTC predominantly made its way into the Wasabi mixer, and subsequent transactions suggest a preference for peer-to-peer (P2P) platforms. This increasing reliance on mixers raises concerns regarding transaction transparency and presents significant challenges in identifying laundering trends. In the past month alone, Bybit has documented 5,012 bounty reports, with only 63 deemed valid. As the demand for expert bounty hunters rises, Bybit emphasizes the necessity for skilled analysts to mitigate risks associated with mixer transactions.