OKX Slams "Misleading" Bloomberg Article Tying it to Bybit Hack Investigation

OKX has denied claims that the EU is investigating its involvement with the recent Bybit hack.

Last month, Bybit fell victim to a security breach resulting in the theft of around $1.5 billion in Ethereum. The attack occurred during a routine transfer from Bybit's offline "cold" wallet to a "warm" wallet used for daily operations.

The attack occurred during a routine transfer from Bybit's offline "cold" wallet to a "warm" wallet used for daily operations, Bybit explained. Hackers exploited this process by manipulating the transaction, gaining control over the cold wallet, and transferring 401,000 ETH to an unidentified address.

Bybit CEO Ben Zhou claimed that 8%—around $100 million— of the Lazarus Group laundered stolen funds passed through a decentralized OKX wallet. Bloomberg then reported that EU regulators are assessing whether OKX’s Web3 services fall under MiCA, potentially linking the exchange to sanctions violations.

"European crypto regulators are scrutinizing the use of a service offered by OKX, one of the largest digital-asset exchanges, by hackers to launder proceeds from a $1.5 billion heist on trading platform Bybit, people with knowledge of the matter said," Bloomberg wrote.

In a tweet, OKX dismissed the article as "misleading" and stated that when ByBit was hacked, OK froze associated funds moving into its CEX and developed a "new feature to detect/block hackers' addresses from using our DEX or wallet services."

"It is unfortunate Bybit's statements are spreading misinformation among journalists. We want to clarify for our community that (1) OKX is not being investigated (2) This is simply a case of Bybit's lack of security know-how (3) Our web3 wallet services are no different than what is offered by other industry players," OKX said.

OKX instead, shifted the blame back to ByBit, adding, “We absolutely refute the false claims by Bybit that are leading to misinformation about our role in what began as a serious security vulnerability on their exchange."