The cryptocurrency exchange Bybit has been hacked, losing over $1.4 billion in liquid-staked Ether and various ERC-20 tokens, marking it as the largest hack in crypto history. Analysts from Arkham Intelligence suggest that the attack could be linked to the Lazarus Group, a North Korean hacker organization. The breach involved sophisticated social engineering that tricked signers into approving a malicious transaction that drained the exchange's cold wallet. This incident underscores the vulnerabilities even centralized exchanges face despite strong security measures. Experts, including Meir Dolev from Cyvers, indicated that the hack shares similarities with previous breaches, with the Ethereum multisig cold wallet exploited through deceptive smart contract logic. The incident highlights the need for improved security solutions like offchain transaction validation to mitigate future attacks. This breach also represents nearly half of all crypto-related hacks in 2024, indicating a concerning trend in the industry.

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