Bybit Hackers Laundered Half Of The Stolen Funds Through ThorChain: Can They Be Stopped?

ByBit $1.5 Billion Heist

21 January 2025 saw Bybit, one of the most prominent exchanges in the crypto realm, get hacked. This security breach in the system has resulted in the loss of over $1.5 million in assets, sending overwhelming shock throughout the world. Early investigation conducted on the case linked the Lazarus group, a North Korean-affiliated state-funded hacking group, to the theft.

The heist, which was executed with utmost precision and efficiency, saw the attackers stealing assets from the exchange without managing to raise even 1 single red flag. The theft resulted in the loss of over 401K ETH and other significant amounts of Ether, MegaETH, and other tokens. 

Hackers Laundered 50% Of Stolen Assets

Per the latest reports from the Spot On Chain, the attackers have managed to move over $266K ETH, which is worth over $614 million. This large conversion means that they might have converted over 48K ETH per day. A majority of this amount was laundered through the ThorChain, according to Arkham Intelligence, who are currently in charge of tracking the digital wallets linked to the crypto heist.

According to Ethreum security experts, tracking the $1.5 billion is in no way a simple task. Further increasing this difficulty level is that the Lazarus group is known for splitting up their funds and using different protocols to move them. This may involve conducting thousands of transactions to avoid any trace that points back to them.

ThorChain Used For Laundering

ThorChain, a decentralized network that allows people to swap their crypto assets, has become the primary place where the Lazarus group decided to launder their stolen ETH Funds. They were using over 3,900 distinct bridge transactions to ThorChain over the last 5 days since the hack, meaning they were liquidating at least $3,229,800 per hour.

At first, Lazarus appeared to use both ThorChain and eXch for fund conversion. However, since eXch has disabled ETH and ERC-20 token swaps following the hack, the attackers’ options have been limited. This disabling followed Bybit CEO promising a 5% bounty on exchanges that help them freeze funds related to the $1.5 billion heist.

Will ThorChain Stop The Fund Flow?

Based on several X posts, there has been an internal division surrounding the inflow and conversion of the Bybit stolen funds. On 27th February 2025, three of the validators even temporarily halted the flow of funds by refusing to validate the transactions. However, it only lasted a few moments due to the highly decentralized nature of the exchange.

Not only that, but ThorChain has also witnessed an enormous surge in its trading volume since Lazarus used it as a laundering site, especially on Wednesday when its volume hit a high of $737 million. With this much money and the transaction fee associated with it, ThorChain is making a relatively good profit and is not likely to stop the inflows from coming in.

Ethereum’s Current Market Standing & Future Outlook

Ethereum is one of the most prominent and promising coins in the market. As of 28th February 2025, the coin is ranked #2 on its market capitalization, estimated to be $256.73 billion with just a circulating supply of 120.58 million tokens. The coin is currently trading at $2,129.94, registering a downtrend of almost 10% from the previous day.

The coin’s bear run following the Bybit theft is currently fueled almost double by the market crash following Bitcoin’s bearish trend. So, it is estimated that ETH will take a long time to land back in the market following this double blow. Even with this said and all this negative news surrounding the tokens, expert market analysts claim that the coin could reach a potential high of $2,250 by the end of this year, marking a slight recovery.