A group of financial crime specialists known as the T3 Financial Crime Unit (T3FCU), has achieved success in recouping hacked cryptocurrency. The unit effectively froze $9 million hackers pilfered from Bybit, a top crypto exchange.
The Bybit hack, which happened in February 2025, resulted in a massive loss of $1.5 billion worth of Ethereum (ETH). Cybersecurity analysts linked the attack to Lazarus Group, a well-known North Korean hacking organization.
These hackers quickly moved the stolen funds through complex methods, making it difficult to track and recover the money.
The T3 Financial Crime Unit was created in August 2024 by TRON, Tether, and TRM Labs. The team works with law enforcement agencies around the world to stop illegal activities in crypto.
To date, they have frozen around $36 million in tainted funds from investment scams and $65 million connected with money laundering. They have also addressed blackmail and illicit drug trafficking crimes.
T3FCU announced its latest success on the social media platform X. It also revealed that more details will be shared at the Digital Chamber blockchain summit on March 26, 2025. The crypto crime unit gave credit to well-known blockchain analysts ZachXBT and ZeroShadow for helping in their investigation.
Crimes using cryptocurrency are on the rise. Hackers stole $2.2 billion in 2024, 17% higher than in 2023, according to a TRM Labs research. Approximately 35% of all cryptocurrency stolen last year, or $800 million, was taken by North Korean hackers.
The Bybit team has been working diligently to recover the stolen funds. They reacted fast when the attack happened and even introduced a bounty program.
The program provides a 10% reward to anyone who assists in the recovery of stolen money. Nonetheless, out of the 5,012 bounty reports they received, only 63 were genuine.
Also Read: From Bybit to WazirX, is Lazarus Group the Bogeyman of Crypto?
