Circle and Tether Freeze Hacker Wallet Tied to Bitget Heist

Circle and Tether have frozen stablecoins in a wallet connected to Thursday’s $351.6 million Bitget hack, though the frozen amount covers only a small piece of the total loss. Circle blacklisted the address, labeled “Bitget Exploiter 8” on Etherscan, at 05:00 UTC Friday. The wallet holds about 170.47 ETH, 218,023 USDT and 99,990 USDC. Blockchain security firm MistTrack said Tether has since banned the wallet as well, leaving roughly $318,000 in stablecoins stuck.

Most Stolen Funds Remain Unfrozen

MistTrack’s tracker shows other exploiter addresses still hold more than 63,000 ETH, an asset no issuer can freeze. That means most of the stolen funds remain outside the reach of Circle or Tether’s blacklisting tools.

How the Bitget Hack Happened

Bitget CEO Gracy Chen said attackers compromised a backend system within the exchange’s wallet infrastructure, spoofed transaction data and triggered its authorization process to move funds out. She ruled out a private key compromise. Chen said the exchange’s user protection fund, which holds more than $464 million, covers the loss.

Circle’s Response Compared to the Drift Hack

Circle’s quick freeze here contrasts with its handling of April’s $285 million Drift hack, when the attacker moved about $232 million in USDC from Solana to Ethereum using Circle’s own cross-chain transfer protocol. Critics, including ZachXBT, argued Circle could have acted faster to blacklist wallets in that case. Circle has said it freezes assets when legally required.