Bybit Declares ‘War on Lazarus,’ Launches Bounty Program to Freeze Stolen Funds
Bybit has taken an aggressive stance against the infamous North Korean hacking group Lazarus, unveiling a dedicated website to track stolen funds and crowdsource investigative efforts. The exchange is offering a 5% bounty for any successful submission that leads to the freezing of illicit assets.
Bybit CEO Ben Zhou made the announcement via social media, calling it the “first bounty site providing full transparency on Lazarus-linked money laundering activities.” Zhou emphasized that users can connect their wallets to the platform to help trace the stolen crypto, and if their efforts result in frozen funds, the bounty will be paid upfront.
“We’ve assembled a dedicated team to continuously update this website,” Zhou stated. “We won’t stop until Lazarus and other bad actors in the crypto space are eliminated. In the future, we’ll expand this effort to assist other victims of Lazarus as well.”
Currently, the platform is monitoring 6,338 wallet addresses tied to the hacking group, with approximately $42.3 million already frozen—representing just over 3% of the total stolen funds.
This initiative follows a devastating attack last Friday in which Lazarus reportedly orchestrated a $1.5 billion hack on Bybit, marking what some analysts have called “the largest crypto theft in history by a significant margin.” The breach sent shockwaves through the digital asset market, causing widespread price declines across major cryptocurrencies.
Bybit’s move signals a bold attempt to combat crypto-related cybercrime and prevent further laundering of stolen digital assets.
