The cryptocurrency exchange Bybit has announced it will close its NFT and Inscription marketplaces, in addition to terminating its IDO products.
Bybit is scaling back its support for non-fungible tokens and Bitcoin-related NFTs, called inscriptions, shortly after experiencing the largest theft in the crypto space, with losses amounting to nearly $1.5 billion.
In a recent announcement on April 1, Bybit indicated that the decision to cease operations for its NFT and Inscription marketplaces, along with its initial DEX offerings, comes as part of an initiative to “streamline our offerings.”
The motivations behind this choice are not entirely clear, but the exchange is still grappling with the aftermath of a significant security incident that occurred in late February when it was hacked by North Korean criminals, resulting in a loss of approximately $1.46 billion. While Bybit’s CEO, Ben Zhou, stated that efforts are ongoing to track the stolen assets, it is known that a portion of the stolen cryptocurrency has become difficult to trace due to the use of mixing services.
In its latest update, Bybit announced that support for its NFT platforms will end on April 8, at which point users will be unable to access product pages. The exchange has urged users to take precautionary measures to manage their assets prior to this cutoff date.
For those participating in IDOs, Bybit has advised moving airdropped tokens from the Bybit Web3 Cloud Wallet to a web3 seed phrase wallet or a private key wallet for further security. Previously, another NFT marketplace, X2Y2, also halted its operations, citing a drop in trading volume.