Greece Makes First Crypto Seizure After $1.5 Billion Bybit Hack – Here’s What Happened

Key Points

1. The Hellenic Anti-Money Laundering Authority in Greece, with Chainalysis' assistance, traced and froze a portion of the stolen funds from the Bybit hack.

2. North Korean hackers converted 86.29% of the stolen funds into Bitcoin, using mixers like Wasabi, CryptoMixer, Railgun, and Tornado Cash to obscure transactions.

3. Bybit initially believed 30,000 ETH ($82 million) was stolen, but later discovered 401,000 ETH ($1.4 billion) had been taken, with hackers processing 350,000 withdrawal requests in 10 hours.

4. A coordinated international effort led to freezing 5.18% of the stolen funds, while 62.04% remained untraceable ('gone dark').

5. Bybit launched a bounty program offering 10% rewards for recovered funds, potentially up to $140 million.