North Korea’s record-breaking Bybit hack changed how exchanges handle security and even influenced FATF’s global crypto recommendations.
Cryptocurrency exchange Bybit suffered a $1.4 billion hack in February 2025 that exposed structural weaknesses in custody systems long considered industry standards, such as cold storage and multisignature wallets.
At the time, the exploit was the largest known hack in crypto history, though that distinction was later eclipsed by findings that Chinese mining pool LuBian lost $3.5 billion in 2020.
“The [Bybit] hack showed that cold storage and multisig labels are meaningless if the approval flow, transaction visibility, or signer environment can be manipulated,” said Ishai Shoham, head of product at crypto infrastructure company Utila. “After Bybit, custody architecture became a first-order risk topic, not a back-office detail.”
