Bitget Confirms $352 Million Security Breach, Suspends Withdrawals

Crypto exchange Bitget has confirmed unauthorized transfers affecting about $351.6 million in assets and temporarily suspended withdrawals while it investigates. The exchange said its security systems flagged the transfers, tied to a limited number of hot wallets, at 18:31 UTC on Thursday, triggering emergency response procedures. CEO Gracy Chen said the breach stayed within a portion of the hot and warm wallet layers, while cold wallets remained secure.

User Funds and Withdrawal Status

Bitget said user account balances remain accurate and that deposits and trading continue as normal. Withdrawals are paused during the security review. The exchange has flagged the addresses tied to the transfers and contacted law enforcement and onchain security firms. Chen said the full affected amount is covered by Bitget’s User Protection Fund, which holds more than $464 million, and that the exchange would give hourly updates and publish a full incident report with root-cause analysis within 24 hours. Early onchain reports had captured a smaller figure than what Bitget later disclosed.

How the Attacker Moved the Stolen Funds

Pseudonymous onchain researcher DCF GOD said a newly created wallet used 19.67 million USDT0 from a Bitget hot wallet to buy 7,111 ETH on Arbitrum within six minutes, with the swaps routed through UniswapX and 1inch Fusion.

North Korea Link Suspected

In a live broadcast after the hack, Chen pointed to a North Korea-affiliated group as the likely attacker, saying the hackers appear highly professional and seem to have targeted Bitget for a long time, though she stressed the exchange isn’t 100% certain of the source.