Bitget Suspects North Korean Hackers Behind $351.6 Million Security Breach
- Bitget suspects North Korean hackers may have breached its systems, affecting $351.6 million in digital assets.
- CEO Gracy Chen reported that unauthorized transfers were detected from hot and warm wallets.
- Withdrawals are suspended, but customer balances are secured by the company’s User Protection Fund.
Bitget, a cryptocurrency exchange, is investigating a significant security breach that has reportedly impacted approximately $351.6 million in digital assets. Preliminary evidence suggests that North Korean hackers may be involved, as indicated by CEO Gracy Chen during a livestream on X.
According to Chen, investigators have identified internet protocol addresses linked to VPN services previously utilized by North Korean hacking groups. The attack pattern mirrors earlier operations attributed to those groups. The method of intrusion into Bitget’s systems remains under technical investigation.
On Thursday afternoon, Bitget detected unauthorized transfers involving 19 transactions from its hot and warm wallet infrastructure, while its cold wallets remain secure. Affected assets include ether, XRP, USDT, USDC, Avalanche, and BNB, spanning several networks, including Ethereum, XRP Ledger, Avalanche, BNB Smart Chain, and Arbitrum. Although earlier on-chain estimates approximated the outflows at around $183 million, Bitget clarified that those analyses did not capture activities across all affected blockchains.
The exchange’s security team concluded that the attacker had compromised a critical backend wallet system, enabling them to spoof transfer information and activate Bitget’s authorization-signing process. Chen stated that the breach has been contained, preventing any additional unauthorized outflows, and ruled out a private key compromise.
While withdrawals remain suspended for repairs and reinforcements to the affected systems, deposits and trading proceed as usual. Chen noted that while she could not provide a specific timetable, withdrawals could resume within hours or days but “shouldn’t take weeks.”
Bitget reassures that customer balances are accurate and that all losses are fully covered by its User Protection Fund, which holds over $464 million. Additionally, Bybit CEO Ben Zhou announced that his team stands ready to assist Bitget, sharing that Bybit is updating its LazarusBounty platform to trace the stolen funds, following Bybit’s own significant hack in February 2025.
News Courtesy of CNBC
