Bitget confirms $352M security breach, suspends withdrawals

Crypto exchange Bitget has confirmed unauthorized transfers affecting approximately $351.6 million in assets and temporarily suspended withdrawals as it investigates the security breach.Bitget said its security systems detected the transfers involving a limited number of hot wallets at 18:31 UTC on Thursday, prompting the exchange to activate emergency response procedures.Bitget CEO Gracy Chen said the breach was contained to a portion of the exchange’s hot and warm wallet layers, while its cold wallets remained secure.The exchange said user account balances remained accurate and that deposits and trading continue to operate normally.Withdrawals have been temporarily suspended while the exchange conducts a security review. Bitget said it has flagged addresses associated with the transfers and contacted law enforcement and onchain security firms.Chen said the full amount affected falls within Bitget’s User Protection Fund, which currently holds more than $464 million. She said the exchange would provide hourly updates and publish a full incident report, including a root-cause analysis and corrective actions, within 24 hours.Early onchain reporting captured a smaller amount than Bitget subsequently disclosed.Pseudonymous onchain researcher DCF GOD said a newly created wallet used 19.67 million USDT0 originating from a Bitget hot wallet to buy 7,111 Ether (ETH) on Arbitrum within six minutes. According to the researcher, the swaps were routed through UniswapX and 1inch Fusion.Speaking in a live broadcast following the hack, Chen pointed to a North Korea-affiliated group as the likely attacker.“Right now, although we are not 100% sure about who attacked us. But it’s likely a North Korean group, so in terms of the hackers, it’s quite obvious they are very, very professional, and they have been targeting us for a very long time.”Magazine: Big Questions: Does Satoshi actually own 1.1 million Bitcoin?