The idea of rolling back Ethereum (ETH-USD) to reverse the $1.4 billion Bybit hack sparked instant backlash from the crypto community. The discussion began when BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes publicly asked Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin on X whether he would “advocate to roll back the chain to help @Bybit_Official.”
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Bybit CEO Ben Zhou confirmed in an X Spaces discussion that the exchange had also reached out to the Ethereum Foundation to explore the possibility. However, Ethereum’s core developer teams and the wider community quickly dismissed the idea, arguing it would undermine the network’s decentralization.
Why an Ethereum Rollback Won’t Happen
Ethereum isn’t designed for rollbacks. Unlike Bitcoin, which operates on a UTXO model, Ethereum uses an account-based system, meaning there’s no way to erase or undo transactions without breaking the integrity of the entire blockchain.
Crypto user @the_weso summed it up bluntly on X, stating, “Rolling back the chain would give ETH no purpose. What’s the point if you can just change rules?”
Some pointed to Ethereum’s 2016 DAO hack, where a network split created Ethereum Classic and the current Ethereum chain. However, that event was not a rollback, but rather an “irregular state transition” that moved stolen ETH to a refund contract.
With Ethereum’s core values rooted in immutability, any rollback proposal remains highly unlikely. At the time of writing, ETH is sitting at $2,645.97.
