Dubai-based cryptocurrency exchange Bybit said Friday that it had suffered what could be the largest cryptocurrency theft in history, with hackers stealing Ethereum worth around $1.5 billion.
Ben Zhou, Bybit's CEO, said in a livestream that the hack had affected around 401,000 Ethereum and had occurred as the company attempted a routine transfer from a cold wallet — an offline storage system — to a warm wallet used for daily trading.
This was a massive mistake that appears to have hurt the trust in the crypto market. Not as much as I would have thought but everything is still down from it. The hacker was able to take control of cold wallets and more the crypto to a location that can't be traced. This is why security is SO important, even in the world of crypto.
I know crypto has been trending down the last month or so and has not recovered but it doesn't seem like this impacted everything as much as you'd think. Still, if other big holders make these mistakes, it will for sure put people off.
@ironfelixx Sure but it depends on where and how you keep your investments. A lot of people use hard wallets which means it is safe from actually being taken if one of these holder platforms gets hacked.
@jasonb I understand how crypto works. I am just saying for every day people that passively invest, they are not going to look at this with security in mind. A lot of people, especially older folks that invest in crypto don't even know what hard wallets are.
Crypto is continuing to tank and this started prior to this massive mistake. I think we will continue to see a downward trend as the market seems a but unstable. People are likely pulling out because they either want to invest in something else, like gold for example, or they need to because money is too tight.
I think they did end up recovering from it, although I am not entirely sure. Crypto started to trend up on Saturday and is trending down again. It seems like there is some panic. I can't figure out what is causing this swing.
@sm0kesc0pe Likely has to do with all the stuff the president is doing with tariffs, if I had to guess. People likely are taking out money cause they feel they will need it. A lot of layoffs happened in the US as well. I think the stock market is down today too.