Bitget customers withdrew more than 4,000 Bitcoin, valued at over $334 million, within one hour of the exchange resuming withdrawals following a recent security breach. CEO Gracy Chen confirmed that while initial outflows were massive, withdrawal activity stabilized shortly after the restart. The surge occurred after hackers stole $388 million in crypto from the Victoria, Seychelles-based exchange’s hot wallets last week.
Chen stated that no cold storage funds were compromised, explaining that attackers exploited third-party product vulnerabilities to steal internal credentials and bypass risk controls. Bitget has since replenished its protection fund, which had dropped below $200 million from a pre-hack level of $464 million. The exchange identified the attack method as highly consistent with known patterns of North Korean hacker organizations. Bitget, ranked sixth by trading volume on CoinGecko, processed $811 million in transactions in the past 24 hours and serves a customer base primarily located in Asia.
The immediate mass withdrawal of over 4,000 Bitcoin highlights the fragility of user confidence when centralized exchanges suffer significant breaches, even when cold storage remains secure. The rapid stabilization of flows suggests that Bitget’s phased withdrawal strategy and public communication regarding the containment of the incident helped mitigate a full-scale bank run. However, the depletion of the protection fund underscores the financial strain such incidents place on exchange reserves, forcing companies to use corporate capital to backstop customer assets rather than relying solely on insurance or dedicated reserves.
Attributing the attack to North Korean actors reinforces the persistent threat landscape facing crypto infrastructure, where sophisticated state-linked groups exploit supply chain weaknesses rather than direct blockchain vulnerabilities. For institutional participants, this incident serves as a critical reminder that compliance and custody protocols must extend beyond the exchange itself to include third-party integrations and credential management. The reliance on corporate funds to restore the protection fund may raise questions about long-term solvency buffers for smaller competitors who lack Bitget’s scale, potentially accelerating market consolidation toward larger, better-capitalized entities.
