Bybit sues North Korea and freezes stolen assets

Bybit filed a civil lawsuit in the US District Court for the District of Columbia against North Korea, its Reconnaissance General Bureau and the Lazarus Group, the hacking unit blamed for the February 2025 theft of roughly $1.5 billion in ether from the exchange. The court granted a preliminary injunction freezing stolen assets held by unidentified defendants, finding Bybit had demonstrated a likelihood of success on the merits.

Bybit said $48.4 million of the stolen funds has been recovered outright, with a further $30.5 million frozen across more than 28 exchanges and custodians pending the litigation. The combined $78.9 million is a small fraction of the original theft, still among the largest cryptocurrency thefts on record.

North Korea will never appear in a Washington courtroom, so the injunction's real force falls on the exchanges and custodians still holding the remaining funds.