Phaara
BBC Business Reporter
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Cryptocurrency bybit said that hackers have stolen a numerical value of $ 1.5 billion (1.1 billion pounds sterling) in what could be the largest crypto flight in history.
The founder of the company based in Dubai told users that their funds were “safe” and that if that would reimburse people affected.
He said pirates have stolen his Ethereum Coin digital portfolio. Ethereum is the second largest cryptocurrency by value after Bitcoin.
The founder of Bybit, Ben Zhou, said that money could be covered by the company or by a loan of partners. Bébit contains $ 20 billion (15 billion pounds sterling) in active.
Bybit said that the hackers have exploited the security features, then transferred the money to an unidentified address.
After the flight, the value of Ethereum fell by around 4% on Friday, which left it worth $ 2,641.41 (£ 2,090) per room.
The flight scale would exceed a previous record, which was a robbery of $ 620 million (490 million pounds sterling) from Ethereum and the USD room in Ronin Network in 2022.
Bybit was founded in 2018. US President Donald Trump and former Paypal Peter Thiel chief would have been among his first investors.
Bybit says that it has more than 60 million users worldwide and offers access to various cryptocurrencies.
“The appeal is solvent even if this loss of hacking is not recovered, all the assets of the customers are supported from 1 to 1, we can cover the loss,” added Mr. Zhou.
The company declared in an article on X that it had reported the case to the authorities and that it worked “quickly and largely” to identify the pirates.
Cryptocurrencies, which have become popular with investors, have triggered the division because many criticize their value to be based solely on speculation, allowing their value to be easily manipulated.
More recently, Donald Trump was criticized for launching his own digital piece while saying that he “did not know much” on cryptocurrency.
The digital part called Trump appeared on its social media accounts before its inauguration and quickly became one of the most precious crypto pieces, but has since decreased significantly.
He highlights security problems in the digital currency market, which hoped for renewed confidence after Mr. Trump launched his medal. His Multimillionaire advisor and owner of Tesla, Elon Musk, also spoke in the Bitcoin past.
In 2014, Crypto Exchange, the MT GOX, filed for a bankruptcy after $ 350 million (210 million pounds sterling) of digital money was stolen due to a flaw in its warranty.
In 2019, pirates stole a value of $ 41 million in Bitcoin to the exchange of binance in another major cryptocurrency robbery.
