ISTANBUL

A crypto exchange, Bybit, announced Friday that a hack attack related to a cold wallet caused a loss of 401,346 Ethereum ($1.4 billion).

Chief Executive and co-founder Ben Zhou announced on X that the theft is only related to Ethereum cold wallet, "warm wallet and all other cold wallets are fine."

"Bybit is Solvent even if this hack loss is not recovered, all of clients assets are 1 to 1 backed, we can cover the loss," he added.

Tom Robinson, co-founder and chief scientist of crypto security firm Elliptic, said on LinkedIn: "Almost $1.5 billion in crypto was stolen from Bybit today. That makes it by far the largest crypto heist of all time."

"It's also potentially the largest single theft of any kind, ever," he added.

He underlined that his firm is working to help exchanges and law enforcement trace and freeze the funds.