Cryptocurrency exchange Bitget has resumed Bitcoin withdrawals after temporarily suspending them following a major security breach that transferred hundreds of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency to attacker-controlled wallets.
Bitget said it has fixed the security vulnerability exploited in the incident and is working to restore withdrawal services for other supported assets and networks.
The exchange said the temporary withdrawal suspension was introduced as a security measure and did not affect the availability of users’ assets.
According to Bitget, Ethereum withdrawals across Ethereum, BSC, Arbitrum, Base, and Optimism are scheduled to resume on September 29 at 8:00 UTC. USDT withdrawals across Ethereum, BSC, Solana, and Tron are expected to resume on September 30 at 8:00 UTC, while withdrawals for other tokens, fiat currencies, and P2P assets are scheduled to resume from October 2 at 8:00 UTC.
Bitget said user account balances remain unaffected and that its Protection Fund will cover the financial impact of the incident. Trading and deposits have also continued to operate while the company investigates the breach.
The exchange suspended withdrawals on Thursday after its security systems detected multiple unauthorized transfers involving a limited number of cryptocurrency wallets. Initial estimates put the amount stolen at around $351.6 million from Bitget’s hot and warm wallets.
Bitget CEO Gracy Chen said the attack affected several blockchain networks, including Ethereum, XRP Ledger, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Optimism, BSC, and Base. Multiple cryptocurrencies were involved, including ETH, XRP, BNB, AVAX, USDT, USDC, and other tokens.
Chen attributed the attack to North Korean hackers, citing on-chain analysis and IP behavior patterns. According to her, the attackers compromised a critical backend system within Bitget’s wallet infrastructure and used it to manipulate transaction data, allowing unauthorized transfers from compromised hot and warm wallets to pass through the exchange’s authorization process.
Bitget later revised its estimate of the stolen assets. The company said the latest on-chain tracing and transaction classification showed that approximately $387.5 million had been transferred to addresses controlled by the attackers.
The exchange has also launched a Recovery Bounty Program, offering a 5% bounty for assistance in recovering or freezing stolen funds.
North Korean state-sponsored hacking groups have been linked to numerous cryptocurrency thefts in recent years. One of the largest incidents involved the theft of approximately $1.5 billion from cryptocurrency exchange Bybit.
Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic estimated in February 2025 that North Korean hackers had stolen more than $6 billion worth of cryptocurrency assets since 2017.
If this article helped you, please consider supporting our work. Every small contribution keeps Abijita.com independent and running.
