Why do Bybit hackers love ETH alone? High value or high liquidity?

The main reasons for hackers to love ETH are: High Value: ETH, as a native cryptocurrency of Ethereum, plays an important role in the market and in the crypto ecosystem, and its value is very high. High liquidity: ETH has a wealth of trading pairs, a large number of trading platforms and active market participants, with high liquidity, and hackers can quickly exchange them for other assets or directly cash them in.

Why do hackers love ETH alone? High value or high liquidity?

On the evening of February 21, Beijing time, cryptocurrency trading platform Bybit was hacked, and more than 400,000 ETH and stETH with total assets worth more than US$1.5 billion were transferred to unknown addresses. The hacking incident was the largest theft in history. Security agencies confirmed that the attacker was the infamous hacker group Lazarus Group, which hacked into South Korean exchanges in 2017 to steal $200 million in bitcoin. And why did the hackers love ETH alone in this attack? Is it because of its high value or high liquidity?

High Value: The Unique Status of ETH

Ethereum is the world's second largest cryptocurrency platform, leading the way for its smart contracts and decentralized applications (dapps). As the native cryptocurrency of Ethereum, ETH plays an important role in the cryptocurrency market. Its value is not only reflected in market prices, but also in its core role in the entire crypto ecosystem.

From the market price, the price of ETH has always been at a high level. With the development of the cryptocurrency market, the value of ETH is also rising. This makes ETH an attractive target in the eyes of hackers. Once a large amount of ETH is successfully stolen, hackers can make huge profits by selling these assets. Taking this Bybit hack as an example, the stolen more than 400,000 ETH worth more than $1.5 billion is undoubtedly a huge asset.

In addition, ETH's core role in the crypto ecosystem also increases its value. Many decentralized applications (dapps) and smart contracts are built on the Ethereum platform, and ETH is the basis for the operation of these applications and contracts. Therefore, controlling a large amount of ETH is equivalent to controlling a part of the encryption ecosystem, which is very attractive to hackers.

High liquidity: the key to rapid monetization

In addition to high value, ETH's high liquidity is also an important reason why hackers choose it. Liquidity refers to the ability of an asset to be able to buy and sell quickly at a reasonable price. In the cryptocurrency market, ETH is very liquid, which means that hackers can convert stolen ETH into other assets in a short period of time, or directly cash out.

The high liquidity of ETH is mainly reflected in the following aspects:

Extensive trading pairs: On most cryptocurrency exchanges, ETH has a wealth of trading pairs that can be traded with Bitcoin, stablecoins and various other cryptocurrencies. This allows hackers to flexibly choose which asset to exchange ETH for to achieve maximum benefit based on market conditions.

A large number of trading platforms: ETH can be traded on many cryptocurrency trading platforms around the world, and whether it is a centralized exchange or a decentralized exchange, it supports ETH trading. This provides hackers with more options to facilitate their operations on different platforms to avoid being tracked.

Active market participants: Ethereum has a large user base and active market participants, which makes ETH trading very frequently. In this active market environment, hackers can easily sell stolen ETH without over-the-top impact on market prices.

Taking the previous path of Lazarus Group to deal with stolen money as an example, three steps will be taken to "dispose" the stolen money that is successful:

The first step is to convert all ERC20 (including liquidity derivative tokens such as stETH) into ETH;

The second step is to convert ETH into BTC;

The third part is to gradually convert BTC into fiat currency through the Asian exchange. During the entire process, ETH's high liquidity allows the stolen money to be converted quickly and smoothly, providing convenience for hackers to finally cash out.

The dual temptation of high value and high liquidity

Overall, Bybit hackers love ETH alone because of its high value and high liquidity. High value makes ETH a "fat meat" in the eyes of hackers, and high liquidity provides hackers with a way to quickly monetize. The two complement each other and together form the huge attraction of ETH to hackers.

In addition, Ethereum's smart contracts and decentralized applications also provide more opportunities and means for hackers. In this Bybit hacking incident, the hacker successfully controlled the ETH cold money bag by manipulating the smart contract logic of the cold money bag, thus achieving theft of a large amount of ETH. This also reminds the cryptocurrency industry that while developing, it is necessary to strengthen security protection and prevent various possible attacks.

This Bybit hacking incident once again sounded the security alarm for the cryptocurrency market. For investors and cryptocurrency exchanges, it is necessary to pay more attention to asset security, strengthen security protection measures, and improve their ability to deal with hacker attacks. At the same time, regulators should also strengthen supervision of the cryptocurrency market, regulate market order, and protect the legitimate rights and interests of investors. Only in this way can the healthy and stable development of the cryptocurrency market be promoted.

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