North Korean hackers suspected in €332.8m crypto heist as it leads global hacks

Published on 28/09/2026 - 12:06 GMT+2

North Korean hackers are suspected of stealing $387.5 million (€332.8mn) in cryptocurrency from major global cryptocurrency exchange Bitget in what appears to be the biggest crypto theft of the year.

In a statement, Bitget said it detected unauthorised transfers from some of its hot and warm wallets on Thursday.

Hot wallets are connected to the internet so an exchange can process transactions quickly, while warm wallets have more limited online access.

The company said its cold wallets, which are kept more isolated, were not affected.

The company identified IP addresses whose VPN usage appeared to match that of a North Korean group, making a North Korean connection “very likely,” CEO Gracy Chen said in a livestream.

“We’ve identified IP addresses that match the VPN choices by a certain [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] DPRK group. We think this is very likely to be attacked by North Korea,” Chen said in a post on X.

The attackers did not obtain the private keys used to access Bitget’s hot, warm or cold wallets, Chen added, meaning they could not use those keys to take direct control of the wallets.

Instead, the hackers breached an internal system and entered false transaction information that made fraudulent transfers appear legitimate to Bitget’s approval system.