Bitget suffers $352 million hack during eighth birthday

A hack of crypto exchange Bitget stole roughly $352 million as Bitget celebrated its eighth birthday. Substantial withdrawals were spotted yesterday from addresses labeled as Bitget hot and cold wallets. Crypto investigator Specter Analyst linked the attack to North Korean hacking collective Lazarus Group. CEO Gracy Chen said during a livestream that the attack showed signs of a North Korean operation. Chen said various chains had frozen addresses associated with the hack. She said Bitget's separate wallet was not affected. Chen ruled out a private key compromise. She claimed hackers breached the wallet services backend system. She claimed hackers forged transfer details. She claimed hackers authorized their own signing processes. Bitget's cold wallets reportedly remained secure. Hackers targeted Bitget's hot wallets and warm wallet layers. Chen claimed user funds were safe. She said Bitget's User Protection Fund held over $464 million and covered most of the loss. Bitget is working with independent investigators Mandiant and SlowMist to determine what happened. Withdrawals remained temporarily paused this morning. The hack was initially expected to involve significantly lower losses.