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Bitget Hacked as $350 Million Vanishes From Crypto Exchange Wallets
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- DeepHorus
Bitget CEO Gracy Chen confirmed that attackers drained more than $350 million in cryptocurrency from the exchange’s hot wallets, while saying user funds were safe. The breach affects internet-connected reserves used for daily transactions, but Chen said the company’s offline cold wallets remained fully secure.
Chen said the full loss falls within Bitget’s User Protection Fund, which holds more than $464 million. Promoted at $300 million in 2023 to cover hacks and theft, the reserve limits customers’ immediate exposure but cannot erase concerns about the exchange’s security.
On-chain researchers Bubblemaps and Arkham analysts first flagged the activity late Thursday, when roughly $183 million moved from wallets labeled as Bitget’s into one new address within about an hour. The transferred assets included ETH, USDT, USDC, AVAX, BNB and XAUT, a token backed by physical gold, according to researcher DCF GOD.
A newly created wallet then spent $19.67 million in USDT0 to buy 7,111 ETH on Arbitrum in six minutes. It used UniswapX and 1inch Fusion, reportedly paying up to 5% above market prices, a premium indicating that speed outweighed obtaining the best execution.
Outflows from publicly labeled exchange wallets stopped roughly six minutes after the first suspicious trade and remained quiet for at least 20 minutes afterward. Users reported blocked withdrawals, a pattern consistent with Bitget freezing transactions during its investigation, although no recovery details or attacker identification were announced.
The incident underscores why crypto users often follow the “not your keys, not your coins” principle, as exchange-held assets lack conventional deposit insurance. Its scale was smaller than Bybit’s $1.4 billion theft in February 2025, but it remains significant against $2.72 billion stolen from exchanges and protocols industry-wide last year. With losses covered, attention is likely to center on the exploit, withdrawal restoration and stronger safeguards.
