On Friday, Bybit was allegedly hacked by the infamous state-backed hacker organization Lazarus Group, which looted roughly $1.5 billion in ether (ETH) from the major cryptocurrency exchange. The hack was the largest in crypto history and represented over 60% of all crypto funds pilfered in 2024. Following the security breach, some of the industry’s most prominent figures suggested “rolling back” the Ethereum blockchain so that the stolen ETH is recovered and returned to Bybit and simultaneously prevent the North Korean government from using those funds to fund its nuclear weapons program. While rolling back the Bitcoin blockchain is technically possible, such a state transformation on Ethereum would be more complex as the chain has evolved significantly, with decentralized finance (DeFi) and cross-chain bridges. Nevertheless, any state change would require consensus and likely result in a controversial hard fork, attracting heavy criticism from the community. This would likely split the Ethereum blockchain into two networks, each with its own proponents. Most pointed to the massive 2016 hack on The DAO as an example when $60 million in ETH was successfully drained. The network proceeded with a coordinated hard fork, splitting the old network into two, and the new chain continued as Ethereum. The fork simply took the money back from the hacker by rewriting the Ethereum ledger. Mike Novogratz, the founder of crypto investment and research firm Galaxy Digital, commended Bybit for doing “a world-class job” of dealing with the hack. Novogratz is against a radical bailout-like hard fork, noting that the Lazarus Group has stolen Bitcoin (BTC) and plenty of other cryptos before. According to the billionaire, the 2016 fork was very different for the Ethereum ecosystem, likening it to a baby taking its first steps. “There will be and should be no ETH fork. Bybit, unfortunately, will take a hit until their funds are recovered if our governments ever press NK (North Korea). The community will freeze the accounts and we move on,” Novogratz added . The Galaxy Digital CEO urged world leaders to deal with the current risk presented by Lazarus. “It’s time world leaders do something about Lazarus.” The price of Ether slumped over 7% in seven hours following the hack, dropping from $2,830 to $2,668. The second largest crypto by market value was trading hands at $2,679 as of press time, CoinGecko data shows .
