Bitget rocked: Customers flee with 4,000 BTC after $388M hack
Following a major $388 million hack, cryptocurrency exchange Bitget resumed customer withdrawals, triggering an immediate withdrawal of over 4,000 bitcoins within the first hour. While withdrawals have stabilized, the incident, attributed to North Korean hackers, involved exploiting third-party vulnerabilities, prompting Bitget to replenish its protection fund.
Bitget, the Victoria, Seychelles-based cryptocurrency exchange, recently reopened its customer withdrawal services following a significant security breach. This incident saw hackers pilfer $388 million in crypto assets from the exchange's hot wallets. Upon the resumption of withdrawals, investors reacted swiftly, with over 4,000 bitcoins, equivalent to more than $334 million at current market values, being withdrawn within the initial hour alone. Bitget CEO Gracy Chen addressed the situation in an interview with Bloomberg Television, confirming that while the initial rush of bitcoin transactions was substantial, the rate of withdrawals from the exchange has since stabilized.
Chen provided further details on the immediate impact of the withdrawal restart, noting that the majority of the hundreds of millions in bitcoin withdrawals occurred during that critical first hour. In a Monday X post, she also disclosed that Bitget successfully processed 9,585 orders, amounting to 4,098 bitcoins, as the exchange implemented a phased approach to allow customers to access their funds. The decision to temporarily freeze withdrawals had been made earlier after blockchain experts detected and flagged unusual outbound transactions from the exchange, prompting Bitget to take swift protective measures.
Investigations into the nature of the cyberattack revealed a sophisticated methodology. Bitget stated that the attack method was