Retail Banking Institute | Crypto thefts leave bank robberies in the dust

Crypto thefts leave bank robberies in the dust

Headlines over the weekend suggested that big US banks are warming to the idea of offering crypto services given the new administration's enthusiasm for crypto. And while fraud appears to have overtaken bank robberies in terms of losses, crypto offers new ways to add anxiety to meetings of bank boards. Robberies have moved on from stealing cash to electronic transfers, and the biggest robbery in recent years is still the Bank of Bangladesh haul. Authorities have only recovered $18 million of the $81 million sent to the Philippines from the Bank of Bangladesh in 2016, making the missing $63 million almost the $64 million question. Researchers say the Lazarus Group was behind the Bangladeshi hack, and it seems the same group has now moved on to more lucrative targets. Dubai-based cryptocurrency exchange Bybit reported last week that someone stole $1.4 billion worth of cryptocurrency Ethereum from its offline cold storage system. Bybit was founded in Singapore in 2018 before moving to Dubai, and says it controls £15 billion in digital assets. Arkham Intelligence posted on X that digital evidence pointed to the North Korean Lazarus Group as the culprits. Bybit posted today that it had restored the equivalent amounts of the lost crypto to all customers. The Blockchain Deposit Insurance Corporation, which is trying to create a crypto insurance model, has called on all crypto businesses to deposit 1 per cent of their token supply to support a "comprehensive insurance and risk mitigation infrastructure". Chainalysis said Lazarus Group engineered the hack with a phishing campaign targeting the multiple signatories of Bybit's cold wallet, and then replaced the signature contract with a malicious version.