ZachXBT exposes the laundering network behind the Bybit and Bitget hacks

What happened

ZachXBT says he spent months posing as a paying client inside a Chinese money-laundering syndicate that moved more than $1 billion in stolen funds for North Korea's Lazarus Group. The intelligence helped freeze proceeds from the February 2025 Bybit breach.

Confirmed

Global impact / market context

If investigators can infiltrate laundering groups, stolen crypto becomes harder to cash out, raising costs and risks for hackers and the exchanges they target. It also encourages exchanges to fund intelligence work and tighten withdrawal checks, slowing cleanups after future thefts.

Analyst inference

Crypto theft is often limited not by the hack itself but by converting tokens into spendable cash. A network moving $1 billion shows how large that channel is. Freezing Bybit-linked proceeds may push launderers toward new methods, raising costs and compliance burdens for exchanges.

Analyst inference

What to watch

1. Watch whether authorities confirm more arrests, charges, or seizures tied to the Chinese laundering group that ZachXBT says moved over $1 billion for Lazarus. Confirmed
2. Exchanges could be asked to share suspicious withdrawal data faster, which means pooling customer payment details to flag stolen funds before they leave. Proposed
3. If freezes expand, launderers may shift to smaller transactions or new tokens, raising fees and delays for exchanges and increasing compliance costs. Analyst inference

Evidence

• cryptopolitan.com