North Korea’s Lazarus Group pulled off the $1.5B Bybit hack, making it the biggest crypto heist ever. Here’s how they did it—and what’s next.

Cryptocurrency exchange Bybit said last week hackers had stolen digital tokens worth around $1.5 billion, in what researchers called the biggest crypto heist of all time. Bybit CEO Ben Zhou said the crypto was taken from a "cold wallet" - a digital wallet usually stored offline and so supposedly more secure - that was used for ether tokens.

Cybersecurity researchers quickly concluded that the era of giant digital-asset heists had entered a new and potentially ruinous phase following the theft.

The FBI referred to the attack as “TraderTraitor,” a malicious campaign linked to North Korean state-sponsored hackers the Lazarus Group.

North Korea is behind the massive crypto hack, according to several blockchain monitoring firms and a well-known researcher

North Korea has gotten away with its biggest crypto heist yet, this time stealing approximately $1.4 billion worth of Ethereum, about 400,000 coins, from the cryptocurrency exchange ByBit. The company’s CEO Ben Zhou on Monday said the company was able to raise new funding to fill the gap and that ByBit can cover all withdrawals,

North Korean hackers took just two minutes to make off with $1.5bn (£1.2bn) in cryptocurrency, cyber security researchers believe, in the single biggest heist in history.

While North Korea is well-known for cyber attacks, their latest hack is officially the biggest heist in history with $1.5 billion in stolen funds.

Bybit clients withdrew almost $4 billion within two days of the attack; the company recovered just 3% of the total of the stolen crypto assets