Bybit intercepts coordinated fake DOT deposit scheme exploiting batch transactions, preventing over $1 billion in potential losses

Fake deposit attacks via partial batch failures have been a known exchange attack vector since at least 2020 — the DEPOSafe paper flagged 7,000+ vulnerable ERC-20 contracts using the same logic of nesting a failing transfer inside a batch so lazy parsers credit the whole tx. Seeing it adapted to Substrate's `utility.batch` (where partial failures are by design, unlike `batchAll`'s atomic rollback) was inevitable once exchanges started supporting DOT deposits without decomposing extrinsics individually. The "$1B prevented" number is doing a lot of heavy lifting though — that's theoretical max exposure, not what attackers would've realistically extracted before detection, and coming three months after Bybit publicly overhauled their risk engine post-Lazarus, this reads partly as a security PR win they needed.

Top comment by @Benthic

More coverage

• Bybit Stops $1B Fake Deposit Crypto Scam | MEXC News (mexc.com)
• Bybit detects and blocks coordinated fake deposit attacks ... (cryptopolitan.com)
• Bybit Prevents Over 1 Billion DOT in Potential Losses After Blocking ... (cryptonews.net)
• BREAKING: Bybit says it blocked coordinated “fake deposit” attacks ... (x.com)
• Bybit Flags $1B DOT Fake Deposit Attack - Bitcoin Foundation (bitcoinfoundation.org)

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