Mint Quick Edit | $1.5 billion crypto heist: Can the case be cracked?
Summary
- Ethereum worth $1.5 billion was stolen by hackers from Dubai-based crypto exchange Bybit. Crypto sleuths exist but the odds of tracing the money and recovering it look slim.
In what is being described as the largest ever theft of cryptocurrency, Ethereum worth $1.5 billion was stolen by hackers from Dubai-based exchange Bybit last week. This exceeds the previous reported record of $620 million of Ethereum and USD Coin stolen from Ronin Network in 2022.
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Who carried out the latest heist is unknown, but Bybit has assured its users that it would pay any unrecovered money from its own funds, even if it means taking a bridge loan. That may come as relief for the aggrieved, although the odds of getting the money back look slim.
Not that nothing can be done to trace it. Crypto sleuths exist. Assisted by forensic software designed for the purpose, they trawl blockchain ledgers to spot transfer patterns that offer clues.
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The challenge, of course, is the anonymity of token ownership (the “crypto" part), which is also why illegal transactions are often done in crypto and why thieves cleverly try to target those who would not want to report a theft.
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Whether or not trails picked up by detectives stand up as evidence in court remains largely untested. Either way, such news should serve a note of caution to Indians who have taken to crypto dabbling. It may be riskier than it seems.
