In 2016, the Ethereum project THE DAO raised approximately $150 million using Ethereum for fundraising.
However, a hacker exploited a vulnerability in the smart contract and stole 3.6 million Ether, which caused a huge uproar and led to a sharp decline in the price of Ethereum.
To address this issue, the Ethereum Foundation decided to handle the stolen funds through a hard fork and announced that the Ethereum after the hard fork would be the true Ethereum, while the Ethereum before the fork would be abandoned.
Due to disagreements, some miners continued to maintain the old chain, which was eventually named Ethereum Classic (ETC) and was listed on major exchanges worldwide.
On February 21, 2025, Bybit was hacked for 490,000 ETH.