The “Kim Jong Un Effect”: Why Bybit Survived a $1.5B Blow That Would Have Killed FTX

As we head into 2026, the crypto world is still reeling from the most sophisticated heist in the history of digital finance. The February 2025 exploit of Bybit, which drained $1.5 billion in a single afternoon, did more than just break records; it shattered the industry’s faith in its own “unbreakable” security. While the market spent the year debating new laws and institutional adoption, North Korea’s Lazarus Group became the unexpected architect of global policy, forcing organizations like the FATF to completely rewrite their safety standards.

Here is the story of how Kim Jong Un’s hackers outsmarted the world’s biggest exchange and why it changes the rules for everyone in 2026.

Hackers Manipulated the User Interface on Bybit

The breach began not with a line of code, but with a person. Weeks before the heist, North Korean hackers compromised a developer at Safe{Wallet}, a tool Bybit used to manage its multi-signature (multisig) process. By stealing “AWS session tokens,” the attackers didn’t need to crack any passwords; they simply lived inside the developer’s workstation, waiting for the perfect moment.

On February 21, Bybit CEO Ben Zhou went to sign what appeared to be a standard transfer of funds. The screen he saw looked perfectly normal, showing a legitimate destination. In reality, the hackers had “manipulated the user interface” to hide a malicious script. When Zhou and his team signed the transaction, they weren’t moving money to their own “warm wallet,” they were handing the keys to 401,000 ETH directly to North Korea.

Kim Jong Un Could Be the Most Influential Figure in Crypto Legislation

By the time the theft was detected, over $160 million had already been laundered. The sheer scale of the hit, more than all North Korean crypto thefts in 2024 combined, forced the hand of global regulators. In June 2025, the FATF released a report that essentially made Kim Jong Un the most influential figure in crypto legislation.

The report warned that gaps in global standards were allowing state-sponsored actors to fund nuclear programs through digital heists. This triggered a regulatory sweep across Southeast Asia, with countries like Singapore and the Philippines ordering unlicensed exchanges to “obtain permits or leave the market” immediately. For 2026, the result is that the era of “light” regulation is over, killed by a single $1.5 billion hack.

Bybit’s Survival Became a Lesson in Crisis Management

The hack could have been an “FTX moment” that crashed the entire market. Instead, Bybit’s survival became a lesson in crisis management. Rather than freezing withdrawals and disappearing, a move that usually causes a bank run, Ben Zhou went live on X within two hours. He was straightforward about the fact that the money was gone. However, he did say that the exchange was “one-to-one backed” and would stay open.

Bybit secured emergency funding from partners like Galaxy Digital (GLXY) and Wintermute within 72 hours, replenishing its reserves before panic could set in. This active transparency has since become the new industry standard. In 2026, any exchange that hides a breach is seen as a failure, while those that follow the Bybit blueprint are proving that transparency is the best defense against a total collapse.

The bottom line is that security in 2026 is about the approval flow, not just the wallet. The 2025 heist taught the industry that if a hacker can change what you see on your screen, your passwords don’t matter.

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