Bybit CEO Ben Zhou said that the exchange will try all available means to get the stolen funds back

Bybit CEO Ben Zhou said that the exchange will try all available means to get the stolen funds back — including a bounty program for anyone aiding in the return of the funds

Crypto exchange Bybit has announced a 10% bounty program for anyone aiding in the recovery of the stolen funds following the Lazarus Group hack, which could amount to up to $140 million.

The exchange also plans to work with law enforcement and the Ethereum Foundation to explore possible solutions for the hack, which saw the threat actors make away with over $300 million in crypto.

Speaking in a Feb. 22 X Spaces, Bybit CEO Ben Zhou was asked if he supported a rollback of the Ethereum blockchain to a state before the Feb. 21 hack, which stole funds that would be rendered invalid by the move.

“I don't think that's realistic. We have to respect the immutability of the blockchain. And I think there are better ways to solve this problem. And we're working on it,” Zhou said.

The Ethereum blockchain was “rolled back” following the 2016 DAO hack, which left approximately $60 million in ETH drained from The DAO.

This hack prompted a hard fork that split the Ethereum blockchain into “Ethereum Classic” and the present iteration of Ethereum.

Funds associated with the Bybit hacker. Source: Arkham Intelligence

According to onchain analytics firm Lookonchain, the Lazarus Group currently holds approximately 489,395 ETH, valued at roughly $1.3 billion, and 15,000 Mantle Restaked ETH (cmETH) in 54 total wallets.

The hacking group, believed to be tied to North Korea, has been shifting the stolen funds between wallets to obfuscate the source of the money and launder the funds onchain.

“The Lazarus Group has been moving stolen funds from Bybit around to avoid detection. They have also been observed interacting with Phemex hacker wallets,” Lookonchain reported on Feb. 23.

The firm added that the group currently has about 100,000 ETH in Phemex hacker wallets and roughly 15,000 cmETH in Phemex wallets tied to the North Korean hacking group.

Related: Lazarus Group consolidates Bybit funds into Phemex hacker wallet

The Lazarus Group is suspected of having stolen about $380 million in crypto from Bithumb in 2022 and roughly $100 million from Harmony in 2022.

The group is also believed to have been behind the Axie Infinity Ronin bridge hack in 2022, which netted the threat actors over $600 million in crypto.

Authorities in South Korea, the United States and the United Kingdom have all sanctioned the Lazarus Group for its involvement in large-scale cyberattacks.