Bybit CEO Ben Zhou Reports That 88% of the Stolen Funds Are Still Traceable

Bybit CEO Ben Zhou reported that 88% of the stolen funds from the exchange is still traceable, but hackers are ramping up obfuscation efforts with Bitcoin mixers.

As the recovery efforts for the stolen funds from Bybit continue, CEO Ben Zhou provided an update, stating that a significant portion of the stolen crypto is still traceable despite hackers increasing use of Bitcoin mixers to obfuscate the transactions.

According to Zhou's latest executive summary of Bybit's stolen funds as of 20 March, around 88.87% of the stolen $1.4 billion is still traceable. Of this, 86.29%, which equates to $1.23 billion, have been converted into 12,836 Bitcoin (BTC) and further distributed into 9,117 wallets, with an average of 1.41 BTC each.

However, Zhou noted that the hackers started to use Bitcoin mixers to scramble the transaction history of the stolen funds. Among the mixers used are:

* Wasbi

* CryptoMixer

* Railgun

* TornadoCash

The funds were originally siphoned in Ethereum (ETH), and then converted into BTC. This conversion was mainly done through cross-chain liquidity provider THORChain, which earlier came under scrutiny for its unwillingness to cooperate in halting the hackers' laundering activities. A core THORChain contributor even resigned in protest.

After passing through mixers, the funds are being channeled through various p2p vendors. Ben Zhou said that this trend will likely grow as more funds are processed through mixers. Already, 7.59% have gone dark, meaning they cannot be traced anymore.

Only 3.54% have been frozen as of the latest report. The first tranche of the stolen funds valued at $42.89 million was frozen in just one day thanks to the coordinated action of Tether, THORChain, ChangeNOW, FixedFloat, Avalanche, CoinEX, Bitget, and Circle. Additionally, Binance and Huobi exchanges froze some of the accounts linked to the stolen funds, based on intelligence provided by blockchain analytics firm Elliptic.

Alongside the fund status update, Zhou reported that 63 of 5012 bounty reports submitted in the past month were deemed valid. He also reiterated the request for help in decoding mixer transactions, stating that it remains "the no.1 challenge" Bybit is facing right now.

The live tracking of the stolen funds' wallet addresses can be seen on the website launched by Bybit to help crowdsource fund recovery efforts. Individuals who provide intel that leads to freezing funds in those wallets will be rewarded with 5% of the value of the frozen funds as part of Bybit's bounty program.