Cryptocurrency Attack on Bitget: $351.6 Million Loss, User Funds Are Safe

It has been confirmed that the activity that started with hundreds of millions of dollars of suspicious transfers on the cryptocurrency exchange Bitget was a hacking incident.

Bitget CEO Gracy Chen stated in his latest statement that the amount affected by the attack was approximately 351.6 million dollars, according to initial calculations.

The incident first emerged with on-chain movements. Blockchain data analysts reported that more than $170 million in cryptocurrencies were transferred from various wallets bearing the Bitget tag to a single newly created address in the first minutes. Among the assets transferred were Ether, USDT, USDC, AVAX and BNB. It was observed that the address that received the assets then started to carry out various exchange transactions on the chain.

“Cold wallets were not affected”

Chen said Bitget uses a three-layer wallet system and all cold wallets are safe.

According to the exchange's statement, the attack was limited to only certain parts of the hot wallet infrastructure. Thus, the claims made in the first on-chain analyzes that cold wallets may also have been affected were rejected by the company.

Bitget management states that balances in user accounts continue to appear correctly and user assets are safe.

464 million dollar fund will be activated

Another point that stood out in Chen's statement was Bitget's user protection fund.

The CEO explained that the current size of the fund is over $464 million and that the entire estimated loss of $351.6 million remains within the scope of the fund.

In the last monthly hedge fund report published by Bitget before the attack, the average value of the fund in August was announced as 382 million dollars and the highest value was 441 million dollars. The figure of 464 million dollars given by Chen represents the current value of the fund.

The stock exchange also reported that the total reserve ratio was 135 percent in its last reserve evidence report published on September 17.

Withdrawals have been stopped

Bitget activated the emergency team a few minutes after the incident was detected. It was announced that the addresses where suspicious transfers were made were marked and reported to the relevant institutions.

The exchange has temporarily suspended withdrawals until a security review is completed. It was stated that deposit and trading transactions continue.

Chen also announced that law enforcement agencies and on-chain security companies were involved in the investigation.

It is not yet known how the attack was carried out. Bitget stated that it would not make any predictions about the attack method until the investigation is completed. The company is expected to share developments hourly and publish a detailed report on the incident. Chen also announced that he will be broadcasting live to answer users' questions.