North Korea accused of year's biggest $387 million crypto attack on Bitget

Bitget suffered a security breach that drained more than $387 million. The attack became the year's largest cryptocurrency hack to date. During a three-hour livestream on X, CEO Gracy Chen said Bitget suspects North Korean attackers exploited a backend system used to process wallet transactions. Chen said the system made fraudulent withdrawals appear legitimate. Chen said the attackers did not steal private keys. She said the attackers tricked Bitget's internal approval system into authorizing the transfers. Bitget said it fixed the vulnerability and paused withdrawals during its security review. The revised loss estimate includes additional transactions identified on the Zcash and TRON networks. BGB dropped almost 7 percent to $1.93 and later traded at $1.97. The unauthorized transfers affected Bitget's hot and warm wallets. Bitget Wallet was not affected because users control their own crypto in that separate self-custodial product. Chainalysis said North Korean-linked hackers stole a record $2 billion in cryptocurrency in 2025. North Korea is widely believed to use crypto theft to generate hard currency amid international sanctions. Chainalysis said the groups increasingly target exchanges and other large crypto firms by placing IT workers inside companies. Bitget announced an investigation partnership with Mandiant and SlowMist. Bitget launched a recovery-bounty program offering up to 5 percent for funds successfully frozen or recovered. Bitget also released a real-time dashboard to help researchers and other platforms identify the attacker's wallets. Bitget said its user protection fund holds more than $464 million. The fund could cover the current loss if the stolen funds cannot be recovered. Liquid Network suffered a $319 million security breach earlier this month. Coldcard suffered a separate attack that drained about $116 million in Bitcoin in late July.