- Bybit lost over 400,000 ETH in a hack valued at $1.5 billion.
- The crypto community is debating whether a ‘rollback’ is needed.
- Some critics say this wouldn’t be feasible at this point.
A massive hack targeting cryptocurrency exchange Bybit on Friday rattled the market, resulting in the loss of more than 401,000 Ethereum worth roughly $1.5 billion.
It has also revived debate about whether the Ethereum blockchain should be “rolled back” in response, echoing debates from the 2016 DAO hard fork.
In that incident, attackers exploited vulnerabilities in a decentralized autonomous organization to divert millions in Etherum, prompting the community to implement a hard fork that restored the funds but split the network.
Bybit CEO Ben Zhou was cautious in his remarks when asked about a rollback. “I really don’t know. I’m not sure if it’s one man’s decision. Based on the spirit of the blockchain maybe it should be a voting process to see what the community wants,” Zhou stated in an X Spaces discussion yesterday.
He added that his team was already in talks with Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and the Ethereum Foundation for any recommendations that might help mitigate the fallout.
The debate quickly spilled over into social media. Former BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes took to Twitter, posing a question to Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin: “Will you advocate to roll back the chain to help Bybit?”
In what appears to be a tongue-in-cheek remark, Hayes added: “ETH stopped being money in 2016 after the DAO hack hardfork. If the community wanted to do it again, I would support it because we already voted no on immutability in 2016 why not do it again?”
Amid the exchanges, Laura Shin of the Unchained podcast added some context and clarification regarding “rollback” proposals, saying “I’m sure they wouldn’t.”
Shin clarified that the term “rollback” originates from Bitcoin’s design, where every transaction is linked in a continuous chain of custody.
In Bitcoin, reversing one transaction would require undoing all subsequent transactions to maintain the chain’s integrity.
However, Ethereum uses a model where balances are updated directly through smart contracts and transactions, meaning there isn’t a single, traceable chain that can be reversed in the same manner.
Instead of a true rollback, what occurred during the DAO incident was an “irregular state change” that reallocated funds from compromised contracts without rewinding the entire blockchain.
Kyle Baird is DL News’ Weekend Editor. Got a tip? Email at kbaird@dlnews.com.
