Bybit CEO says firm secured almost 80% of lost ETH as bridge loan from partners to ease liquidity crunch following $1.4 billion hack

Bybit Co-Founder and CEO Ben Zhou responded to audience questions about how the firm will move forward with customer withdrawals following its $1.4 billion hack Friday morning. 

Zhao said in an X Space livestream that all client withdrawals will be processed, even if they are under review. The firm will not buy Ethereum but instead rely on a bridge loan, or a type of short-term loan to aid an entity's transition period, from its partners to facilitate the endeavor. 

"For immediate sake, we are currently reaching out to our partners to give us a bridge loan," Zhou said in a Friday livestream. "So, currently, we are not buying [Ethereum]. And even if we did want to buy, it is too big of amount to be moving around."

"But we are getting help, support, from our partners," Zhou continued. "We actually already secured almost 80% of the Ethereum that's been stolen as a bridge loan to give us that liquidity, to help us with the liquidity crunch, so we can pass this crucial period." 

Bybit confirmed it lost $1.4 billion in funds after a hacker gained access to the firm's multisig cold wallet, which one expert called "the largest crypto theft of all time," The Block had previously reported.

Bybit is a centralized exchange based in Singapore. The firm recorded $233.36 billion in spot market volume in January, The Block's Data Dashboard shows.