Sygnum offers Bitget institutions custody as withdrawals remain paused

Sygnum announced that eligible Bitget institutional clients could use its Protect service for spot and derivatives trading while pledged collateral remained in Swiss custody. Bitget mirrors the collateral balance as trading margin. Bitget said about $387.5 million in assets moved to attacker-controlled addresses during a Sept. 24 wallet breach. Bitget said its systems detected unauthorized transfers at 18:31 UTC on Sept. 24. Its initial estimate placed the affected funds at about $351.6 million. Bitget said the breach reached parts of its hot and warm wallet layers. Bitget said its cold wallets remained secure. Bitget raised the estimate to about $387.5 million on Sept. 25 after including Zcash and TRON transfers. Bitget said the revision did not represent a new wave of unauthorized transfers. Bitget said it identified and remediated the vulnerability and contained the incident. Bitget said Mandiant and SlowMist were assisting its investigation. Bitget withdrawals remained temporarily unavailable while deposits and trading continued. Bitget said it would announce a withdrawal plan or status by Sept. 26 at 04:00 UTC. Sygnum requires clients to onboard with the bank, sign a contractual framework, open a Protect portfolio, and pledge assets before receiving exchange margin. Sygnum lists Bitcoin, Ethereum, stablecoins, and US Treasuries as eligible collateral. Sygnum describes the collateral as being held in segregated accounts off its balance sheet. Sygnum also describes the collateral as bankruptcy remote under Swiss banking law. The public materials do not establish that Protect clients can instantly reclaim collateral during an exchange disruption. The materials also do not show that any Sygnum client was blocked from collateral in this incident. The companies did not disclose how many Bitget clients use Protect. They did not disclose whether any Sygnum-held collateral was connected to the incident. Bitget pointed users to its User Protection Fund. Bitget said the fund was worth more than $464 million in its initial Sept. 24 notice. Bitget said the estimated $351.6 million incident fell within the fund's coverage. Bitget's public fund page lists 5,500 BTC. Bitget said users may claim for qualifying losses from platform-wide events beyond their own actions or trading behavior. Bitget reserves the right to assess and investigate claims. Bitget's August report put the fund's monthly average at $382 million. The report put its month-end value near $432 million on the same 5,500 BTC holding. Bitget said it froze some affected assets through work with industry partners. Bitget did not quantify the frozen or recovered amount in its Sept. 25 update.