Bitget hack losses reach $387.5 million as North Korea remains suspect

Hackers stole roughly $387.5 million from Bitget in what is believed to be the year's biggest crypto hack. Bitget security systems detected unauthorized transfers from some hot wallets at 18:31 UTC on September 24. Investigators had tallied roughly $183 million in assets within about an hour. Bitget initially confirmed losses of $351.6 million before updating the total to $387.5 million today. Attackers entered a backend system in Bitget's wallet infrastructure. They used the system to spoof transaction data. Bitget's authorization process then approved the payouts. Gracy Chen said the attackers did not forge user withdrawal requests. Chen also said the attackers did not obtain private keys for Bitget's cold, hot, or warm wallets. A pseudonymous researcher identified a wallet that spent $19.67 million in USDT0 to buy 7,111 ETH within six minutes. The wallet paid roughly 5% above market price through UniswapX and 1inch Fusion. Other wallets tagged as belonging to Bitget sent assets across at least five blockchains. The largest asset transfer involved roughly 103 million XRP worth about $157 million. Chen said Bitget stopped the outflow. Chen said no further unauthorized transfers are possible. Bitget's User Protection Fund holds more than $464 million. Chen said the fund will cover the full loss. Customer account balances will remain intact, according to Chen. Deposits and trading continued. Bitget froze withdrawals as a precaution. The fund held $300 million in 2023. Chen said some IP addresses matched VPN choices associated with a certain North Korean group. Chen said the on-chain patterns resembled techniques used by North Korean state-linked hacking groups. The attacker's identity remains unconfirmed. No technical evidence has been made public. Chen said the same group previously took about $80,000 from her personal wallet outside Bitget. North Korea's Lazarus Group, also known as TraderTraitor, has been blamed for major crypto heists. The FBI confirmed weeks later that the February 2025 Bybit hack involving $1.4 billion was North Korean work. Chainalysis estimates that North Korea's 2025 haul exceeded $2 billion. Bitget plans to publish a full incident report after its technical teams complete system remediation. Withdrawals remain paused until tomorrow.