Crypto exchange Bitget says $352 million affected in a hack, claims user funds are 'safe'

Bitget disclosed that $351.6 million was exposed in a security incident that affected portions of its hot and warm wallet systems, CEO Gracy Chen said in a social media post. The exchange maintained that its cold wallets — where signing credentials are kept isolated from internet-connected systems — were not compromised and that user funds are protected.

Chen said Bitget maintains a user protection fund with more than $464 million available, and the company has temporarily suspended withdrawals while it conducts a security review. The exchange kept deposits and trading active, and Chen pledged to publish a detailed incident report within 24 hours.

Independent on-chain observers and blockchain researchers first flagged unusual movements from wallets labeled as belonging to Bitget, initially reporting about $183 million moved. Arkham Intelligence analyst Emmett Gallic said the transactions involved three Bitget hot wallets and one cold wallet across multiple blockchains and that assets were consolidated into a single address. He identified assets moved as ether (ETH), binance coin (BNB), avalanche (AVAX) and tether (USDT), and noted an earlier estimate of roughly $178 million in funds moved.

Market reaction was visible in Bitget’s native token BGB, which dropped before recovering somewhat; the report cited a 2.9% decline for BGB as of 22:10 UTC. Bitcoin and ether showed modest declines over the prior 24 hours, down about 0.29% and 0.2% respectively. The disclosure follows other large incidents in September, including a separate loss of $320 million from the Liquid Network earlier in the month.