Bybit Takes on Lazarus Group, Launches Bounty Program to Recover Stolen Funds

Bybit has declared an all-out battle against North Korea’s Lazarus Group, unveiling a new tracking platform and offering a 5% bounty for information that leads to the freezing of stolen crypto assets.

The exchange’s CEO, Ben Zhou, announced the initiative on social media, calling it the first-of-its-kind bounty program focused on exposing and disrupting Lazarus’ laundering network. The newly launched website provides full transparency on the group’s wallet addresses, allowing users to connect their own wallets and report suspicious transactions.

“If a submission helps freeze funds, we’ll pay out the bounty immediately,” Zhou stated. “We’ve dedicated a full-time team to updating and maintaining this site. Our mission is to ensure Lazarus and other bad actors can no longer operate in this industry.”

So far, Bybit’s platform is monitoring 6,338 wallet addresses linked to Lazarus, with around $42.3 million already frozen—accounting for just over 3% of the total stolen funds.

The initiative follows last week’s catastrophic $1.5 billion Bybit hack, which rocked the crypto market and was later attributed to Lazarus. The attack has been described as “the most significant crypto theft in history,” sending shockwaves through the industry.

Bybit’s move signals a new approach in tackling crypto crime, leveraging community-driven intelligence to track down illicit funds and hold cybercriminals accountable.