Bitget Hack: $387 Million Tied to North Korea

The breach at the crypto exchange Bitget of September 24, 2026 now has a sender: in early October the analytics firm Chainalysis attributed the theft of around $387 million to actors with ties to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. For you as an investor in Germany that attribution changes nothing about your balance, but it does change the risk assessment: anyone who suspects a state-backed team behind an attack expects a series rather than an isolated case. This piece sorts out what is documented, and what follows from it for custody, choice of exchange and record-keeping.

$387 million in 23 transfers: how the Bitget hack unfolded

The attack of September 24, 2026 hit a hot wallet of the exchange, meaning a holding that is permanently connected to the internet and services withdrawals. A hot wallet is the counterpart to a cold wallet, whose keys sit offline. That very reachability makes it a target: whoever controls the keys can transfer immediately.

On Chainalysis's account, around $387 million left the exchange within three hours, spread across 23 individual transfers. Depending on the report the sum is given as $387 million to $388 million; the range comes from different valuation moments for the tokens that were moved. Three hours is a long time in this context. It is enough to spread money across several networks, and it is not enough to freeze it if nobody is watching.