Bitget will reopen crypto withdrawals in four stages starting Sept. 28, days after hackers drained Bitget's hot and warm wallets of roughly $351.6 million. The exchange says its Protection Fund covers the loss even as blockchain trackers spot the attacker still moving stolen funds through other exchanges.
The exchange confirmed it will resume crypto withdrawals gradually after the security lapse. Bitcoin withdrawals return first, reopening Sept. 28 at 08:00 UTC.
Withdrawals return in four stages
Ether withdrawals follow next, resuming Sept. 29 across Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain, Arbitrum, Base and Optimism. Tether unlocks after that, with USDT withdrawals returning Sept. 30 on Ethereum, BSC, Solana and Tron. All remaining tokens, plus fiat and peer-to-peer services, come back by Oct. 2.
Bitget said in a statement on X: "The vulnerability involved in the incident has been identified and remediated." Trading and deposits never stopped during the pause, and the exchange maintains that customer balances were not affected.
Loss estimate climbs to $387.5 million
The initial estimate has since climbed. Bitget's loss was revised upward to $387.5 million after the exchange recovered additional assets on Zcash and Tron networks. The stolen haul included roughly 103 million XRP worth about $157 million, along with ether and USDT. Cold wallets were not compromised, and no private keys were exposed.
Attacker keeps moving funds
Circle and Tether have frozen $318,000 tied to a wallet labeled "Bitget Exploiter 8". The freeze blacklisted 218,023 USDT and 99,990 USDC. Even so, blockchain analyst Lookonchain flagged a wallet that pulled 457.9 ETH, worth about $1.23 million, out of Binance and sent it to the Bitget hacker's address on Sept. 25.
Protection Fund leans on bitcoin's price
Bitget's Protection Fund holds 5,500 BTC. At bitcoin's current price near $84,000, that stash is worth about $462 million. CEO Gracy Chen says the fund holds more than $464 million and will cover the loss.
Chen has pointed to North Korea-linked hackers as a possible source, based on IP address analysis and transaction pattern tracing that Bitget says is still under investigation. Despite the breach, Chen also confirmed Bitget still plans to go public within three years.
Sources: CoinGape, Bitcoin.com News, Crypto Briefing
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