eXch to Shut Down After Allegations Tied to Bybit Hack

Cryptocurrency exchange eXch said it will wind down operations by May 1 following allegations it was used to launder millions connected to the massive Bybit hack earlier this year.

eXch said most of its leadership voted to “cease and retreat” in the face of increasing pressure. The exchange is reportedly under an international investigation amid claims that North Korea’s Lazarus Group funneled around $35 million of stolen funds through its platform.

“We’ve managed to stay online despite various attempts to take down our systems,” the company said. “But there’s no reason to continue in an environment where we’re under signals intelligence surveillance simply due to mischaracterizations of our mission.”

eXch initially pushed back on accusations that it facilitated laundering for Lazarus, though it later conceded it processed what it called an “insignificant” amount tied to the $1.4 billion Bybit exploit in February.

Executives defended the platform’s pro-privacy stance while taking aim at other exchanges, accusing them of mistreating users under the guise of anti-money laundering policies.

The Bybit breach, one of the biggest in crypto history, triggered over $5 billion in user withdrawals and forced the exchange to shut down several Web3 services, including its NFT marketplace. Bybit CEO Ben Zhou said the firm could absorb the losses, but fallout from the incident was swift.

Bybit has since bounced back, reclaiming a 7% share of the crypto exchange market as of April 10. The platform offered over $2 million in rewards to bounty hunters who helped trace roughly 89% of the stolen assets to other exchanges.

Bybit CEO Ben Zhou also claimed that $100 million (40,233 ETH) from the hack had been laundered through OKX’s Web3 proxy, with a portion now untraceable. OKX’s wallet service, which supports 100 blockchains and has over 53 million addresses, could be exempt from MiCA rules if considered fully decentralized. However, regulators in Austria and Croatia argue that OKX’s Web3 service should be subject to EU oversight.

For its part, OKX denied that it is under investigation. In a statement on X, the exchange accused Bybit of spreading misinformation and defended its wallet services. OKX Global’s chief marketing officer, Haider Rafique, called allegations of laundering stolen funds “preposterous.”