Bitget's $352 million hack happened via spoofed transfers, not private keys, CEO Gracy Chen says

Bitget lost $351.6 million after attackers compromised a wallet backend, spoofed transaction data, Chen said on X.

Bitget lost $351.6 million after attackers compromised a wallet backend, spoofed transaction data and triggered the exchange’s authorization process, though the company said its private keys were not compromised.

The breach affected hot and warm wallets, but Bitget said its offline cold wallets remained secure and that it had stopped further unauthorized transfers.

Bitget said its $464 million-plus User Protection Fund would cover the loss, while deposits and trading remain open and withdrawals are suspended pending a security review.

She described the breach as the digital version of slipping forged withdrawal slips through a bank’s own teller window. The vault keys never left the building. Someone got into the office that prepares the slips, created paperwork that looked official, and sent it through the same approval window the bank uses every day. To the system doing the approving, it looked like a normal payout.

The outflow, however, has been stopped, Chen confirmed.

“Loss containment is confirmed. No further unauthorized transfers are possible. The specific method of system intrusion remains under active investigation. A full technical report will follow once confirmed,” she said.

Bitget, officially registered and headquartered in Seychelles, is one of the top 10 cryptocurrency exchanges in the world by trading volume.

The exchange serves over $125 million users spread across the globe and facilitates trading in hundreds of crypto tokens, alongside tokenized stocks, commodities, FX and precious metals such as gold. Additionally, its self-custodial Bitget Wallet has independently crossed 100 million users.

As of 2025, the exchange had roughly 1,900 employees.

The breach surfaced when Bitget’s systems flagged unauthorized transfers from some exchange hot wallets at 18:31 UTC on Sept. 24. A hot wallet stays connected to the internet so funds can move quickly. For an exchange, it is a temporary liquidity hub, analogous to an online cash drawer that handles instant trades, deposits, and withdrawals.

Chen said the hack also reached the warm-wallet layer. That is a semi-connected buffer between the automated hot wallets and fully offline cold storage. It tops up the hot wallet when balances run low and pulls excess deposits off the internet so too much capital is not left exposed.

The cold wallets, Bitget’s offline vault, “ remain fully secure .”

She added that Bitget’s User Protection Fund holds more than $464 million and covers the full loss. “User funds are safe,” she wrote . “Your account balances are accurate and your assets are protected.”

Deposits and trading are still open. Withdrawals are not. Bitget froze them “as a precautionary measure, pending security review.”

She did not put a clock on when withdrawals will resume.

“Multiple technical teams are working in parallel on system remediation and security hardening,” she wrote. “We will announce a timeline as soon as one is confirmed — we will not commit to a window we cannot guarantee.”

11:25 UTC: Adds a para on Bitget’s business

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