Bitget crypto exchange hacked: $351.6 million stolen

Cryptocurrency exchange Bitget has disclosed a breach in which attackers moved $351.6 million out of its hot and warm wallets. The company says suspected North Korean hackers were behind the theft.

The breach was discovered Thursday evening, when security systems flagged several unauthorized transfers from a limited number of wallets. Bitget has temporarily suspended all withdrawals and is investigating with help from law enforcement, on-chain security firms, and experts at Mandiant and SlowMist.

What was affected

According to Bitget CEO Gracy Chen, the attack touched the Ethereum, XRP Ledger, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Optimism, BSC, and Base chains and hit several assets — ETH, XRP (the largest single-chain loss), BNB, AVAX, USDT, USDC, and other tokens. Some chains have already confirmed that the attackers' wallet addresses have been frozen.

As the company describes it, the intruders compromised a critical backend system within its wallet infrastructure, spoofed transaction data, and triggered the authorization process to move funds out. No further unauthorized transfers are possible, the exchange says, though exactly how the attackers got in remains under investigation.

Assurances for customers

Bitget stresses that its cold wallets and the overwhelming majority of platform assets remain untouched. The self-custodial Bitget Wallet runs on independent infrastructure and was not affected. Losses will be covered by the User Protection Fund, which currently holds more than 5,500 BTC worth about $464 million. Customer balances remain accurate, deposits and trading operate normally, and withdrawals will resume once investigators confirm it is safe.

Chen tied the theft to North Korean groups, saying the IP behavior patterns and on-chain analysis are "highly consistent" with their known methods. North Korean hackers have previously been linked to several major crypto heists, including the Bybit case, in which $1.5 billion was drained from the exchange's ETH cold wallet.

Source: Bleeping Computer