A US$1.5bil hack: How the biggest crypto heist in history went down


The cryptocurrency exchange Bybit lost US$1.5bil to North Korean hackers last month – and it all traced back to an account on a free digital storage service. — ©2025 The New York Times Company

On the night of Feb 21, Ben Zhou, the CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Bybit, logged on to his computer to approve what appeared to be a routine transaction. His company was moving a large amount of ether, a popular digital currency, from one account to another.

Thirty minutes later, Zhou got a call from Bybit’s chief financial officer. In a trembling voice, the executive told Zhou that their system had been hacked.

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