Bitget Reopens Withdrawals After $388M Hack, Starting With Bitcoin

Bitget began restoring withdrawals Monday, starting with Bitcoin (BTC), after a Sept. 24 breach that the exchange says moved about $388 million in assets out of its platform.

Bitcoin Withdrawals Resume

Withdrawals on the Bitcoin and BSC networks restarted at 08:00 UTC, the company said, and by 09:00 UTC it had processed 9,585 BTC withdrawals totaling about 4,098 BTC. Chief Executive Gracy Chen addressed the breach in a live AMA session Monday.

Ether (ETH) withdrawals are scheduled to resume Sept. 29, followed by Tether (USDT) on Sept. 30 and by other tokens, fiat and peer-to-peer services on Oct. 2.

Bitget Hack Investigation

The attacker exploited a flaw in a third-party security product to obtain high-level internal credentials and used them to send fraudulent withdrawal commands that bypassed risk controls, according to Bitget. Private keys, cold wallets and user balances were not affected, the company said.

Mandiant and SlowMist are supporting an independent forensic investigation, industry partners have helped freeze some assets, and Bitget expects to release an official security report this week.

Bitget said the breach was the first of its kind in eight years of operation. Over that span, the exchange added monthly Proof of Reserves and a User Protection Fund that it says now holds more than $464 million, and it reports a reserve ratio of 127%.

Murtuza is a seasoned finance journalist with extensive experience covering cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. He has contributed to Benzinga and Cointelegraph, among other publications, reporting on emerging trends, the regulatory landscape, and more. Find him at @murtuza_merc on Twitter and mmerchant001 on Telegram. Disclosure: Murtuza holds ATOM, AKT, TIA, INJ, and OSMO.