Bitget’s $388M hack pushes Q3 crypto security losses past $1B

Crypto security incidents produced $1.26 billion in reported losses during the third quarter of 2026, according to data compiled by blockchain security firm CertiK. The total represents a 53.9% increase from the $819.4 million recorded in the prior quarter and was spread across 247 separate security events. The single largest contributor to Q3’s losses was the hack of exchange Bitget, which CertiK quantified at $387.5 million and estimated accounted for roughly 31% of the quarter’s total. Other major incidents included a $319 million exploit of Liquid Network on Sept. 6, a $120 million attack on Tectonic, and a $112.7 million theft involving Coldcard. September was an especially costly month, with CertiK reporting about $769 million in losses across 99 incidents. The firm said about $273 million of those funds were frozen or returned, producing adjusted losses of $495.3 million for the month. Exploits were the dominant loss type in September, responsible for about $734 million across 58 incidents — nearly 96% of that month’s reported losses. Bitget disclosed that it detected unauthorized transfers from several hot wallets on Sept. 24 and subsequently suspended withdrawals. The company attributed the breach to an attacker exploiting a vulnerability in a third-party security product to acquire internal credentials and submit forged withdrawal commands.