Bybit sues North Korea and Lazarus Group over $1.5 billion hack, secures asset freeze
Cryptocurrency exchange Bybit has filed a lawsuit against the North Korean Lazarus Group to recover $1.5 billion stolen in a 2025 cyberattack. A U.S. federal court has granted a preliminary injunction to freeze the stolen assets while the litigation proceeds.
Why it matters
This case represents a significant legal effort to hold state-sponsored actors accountable for large-scale cybercrime and sets a precedent for asset recovery in the crypto industry.
In addition to the lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Bybit said it won a preliminary injunction freezing certain stolen assets held by a group of unidentified individuals and entities, named in the case as John Doe defendants, the exchange said in a press release on Friday.
On February 21, 2025, the North Korean state-sponsored Lazarus Group f allegedly executed the largest cryptocurrency heist in history, stealing approximately $1.5 billion in Ethereum (over 400,000 ETH and stETH) from Dubai-based Bybit. The Bybit hack made up a bulk of the $2.02 billion in crypto stolen by North Korea last year. In total, North Korean hackers have stolen $6.75 billion worth of crypto, according to data from Chainalysis. The country is widely believed to use its ill-gotten crypto to fund its weapons program.
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