Bybit hackers are sending stolen bitcoin to mixers and peer-to-peer vendors following the $1.5 billion cryptocurrency hack at the exchange in February 2025.
Amid the ongoing recovery efforts, co-founder and CEO Ben Zhou reported that hackers converted 86% of the stolen funds, amounting to 440,091 ETH (about $1.23 billion), into 12,836 BTC.
Previously, the hackers had transferred a significant portion of the stolen ether into bitcoin, primarily through the cross-chain liquidity protocol THORChain.
In an update, Zhou said that 12,836 BTC were distributed across 9,117 wallets, with an average amount of 1.41 BTC per wallet. He added that the hackers, believed to be the North Korean Lazarus Group, are using Bitcoin mixers such as Wasabi, CryptoMixer, and Railgun to launder the stolen crypto.
Specifically, Zhou said 193 BTC ($16 million) were directed primarily through the Wasabi mixer before being funneled to various peer-to-peer vendors. In crypto, peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions occur directly between individuals without intermediaries. P2P vendors enable these exchanges through online platforms or informal networks.
Wasabi is a Bitcoin mixing service that uses a technique called CoinJoin, which obfuscates Bitcoin transactions for privacy.
"We believe this trend will grow as more funds will go through mixers. Decoding mixer transactions is the no. 1 challenge we face now," Zhou commented on X.
According to Bybit's latest data, 88.8% of these funds remain traceable, 7.6% have become untraceable, and 3.5% have been successfully frozen.
According to Arkham data, North Korea's hacker group Lazarus currently owns 13,400 BTC, most of which came from the Bybit hack.
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