Germany seizes $38M in crypto from exchange tied to Bybit hack

German police confiscated $38 million worth of cryptocurrency from the eXch exchange on May 8, 2025, following an earlier money laundering case. The police revealed that eXch assisted in laundering stolen funds from the Bybit exchange.

eXch is a cryptocurrency exchange offering anonymous swap services. Operating without requiring Know Your Customer (KYC) verification, it has become a safe haven for distributing stolen funds, including those from the Bybit hack.

On February 21, 2025, Bybit suffered the largest crypto hack ever, losing about $1.5 billion. 

The hackers, linked to North Korea’s Lazarus Group, exploited a flaw in Bybit’s use of Safe. They injected a harmful code into its user interface, which enabled them to steal 401,000 ETH from an offline “cold” wallet.

Within hours, the criminals distributed the funds across thousands of addresses while converting a significant chunk into Bitcoin using decentralized exchanges. One of those DEXes has been found to be eXch.

In about 48 hours, $160 million was laundered, which prompted Bybit to freeze withdrawals. It also announced a bounty, through its CEO, of $140 million to track and freeze stolen funds. So far, the exchange has paid over $4 million to bounty winners.

The authorities also highlighted that before the crackdown, eXch had earlier announced it would shut down its services on May 1, 2025, citing regulatory challenges.

However, in collaboration with the Dutch Tax Investigation Department (FIOD), the German police were able to seize the “German infrastructure” of eXch.

Speaking about the matter, Dr. Benjamin Krause from the Zentralstelle zur Bekämpfung der Internetkriminalität (ZIT) which means Central Office for Combatting Internet Crime, explained that criminals use crypto swapping to hide money gained from crimes like hacking or selling stolen card details. This method enables them to access the money without detection. 

According to Krause, it’s very important for law enforcement to keep acting quickly against these fast and anonymous ways of hiding criminal money, no matter how small the amount, and to make sure criminals lose the money they gained illegally.

Carsten Meywirth from the Federal Criminal Police Office said they have once again seized millions in illegal crypto and shut down an online money-laundering service. He pointed out that the size of this case shows how cybercrime is now happening on a very large and organized scale. 

He said they will keep working to make crime riskier and more costly for criminals, and they remain focused on making sure those behind it face justice.