Ether Climbs 2.3% as Bybit Moves $100M Toward ETH Purchases

Ether (ETH) has gained 2.3% over the past 24 hours, outperforming the broader market, where the CoinDesk 20 Index posted a 0.76% increase. Bitcoin (BTC), in contrast, dipped slightly by 0.3%.

The price boost follows reports that Bybit, the crypto exchange recently hacked for $1.5 billion in ETH and staked ETH by North Korea’s Lazarus Group, has allocated 100 million USDT to new wallets, with half of that amount already used to acquire 36,900 ETH via over-the-counter (OTC) transactions.

According to Arkham Intelligence, these funds—worth roughly $101 million—were later transferred to addresses associated with Bybit. Crypto journalist Colin Wu was among the first to report the transactions.

Bybit CEO Ben Zhou reassured users during a recent “ask me anything” session, stating that the exchange’s reserves are “far greater than $1.5 billion.” He further disclosed that Bybit has “a cold wallet in safekeeping with nearly $3 billion in USDT.”

Meanwhile, the hacker still holds approximately 489,000 ETH, valued at around $1.34 billion, making them the 14th-largest ETH holder. However, the stolen funds have been flagged and blacklisted by major exchanges, significantly limiting their usability.

“The likelihood of these funds re-entering circulation is extremely low. Any attempt to offload them would be met with immediate restrictions,” said Maria Carola, CEO of StealthEX.

Some analysts argue that with this 0.4% of the ETH supply effectively locked away, the reduced available liquidity is providing an upward push to ETH’s price.