Ethereum After the $1.5 Billion Hack: Buy the Dip or Sell?

The key technical level to watch...

Author

Markus Thielen
February 22, 2025

👇1-12) The North Korean Lazarus Group hacked Bybit, stealing $1.5 billion worth of Ethereum—equivalent to the exchange's annual profit. This is the largest crypto hack in history and the most sophisticated targeting cold wallets. The hacker identified each multisig signer and infected each signer’s device with malware. The hacker made the user interface show a different transaction than what was signed and got all signers to approve without suspicion.

👇2-12) In response, a Binance user (whale, not the exchange itself) and Bitget have transferred ETH to replenish Bybit’s wallets. However, these funds were issued as loans. They must be repaid unless the stolen assets are recovered—an unlikely outcome. This means Bybit will likely have to buy back $1.5 billion worth of ETH from the market when repaying the loans, which could be net positive for Ethereum’s price. The amount is too small to discuss another ETH fork after a hack. But is the market worried that Lazarus could dump ETH and crash prices?

Ethereum Liquidations (LHS, $ million) vs. Ethereum (RHS)

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