Bitget says $351.6 million was drained in a hack, the largest confirmed crypto theft of 2026 so far

Bitget says assets worth about $351.6 million were moved out in a breach that began on September 24 at 18:31 UTC. For PSPs, exchanges, and banks that touch crypto flow, the important detail is not just the size of the loss but the mechanism: the attacker allegedly manipulated backend transfer data so the system itself approved the withdrawals.

1. According to Bitget, the attacker got into its internal backend servers and altered transfer records. The security system then authorized the withdrawals because the transactions appeared legitimate. Bitget said private keys were not compromised.
2. The affected assets were across ETH, XRP, BNB, AVAX, USDT, USDC and other networks. Bitget said stablecoins and tokenized gold were exchanged into ETH through decentralized exchanges, while ETH was split across dozens of addresses and XRP was dispersed across multiple XRP Ledger addresses.
3. The company said the unauthorized transfers hit part of its hot wallets and intermediary wallets. Cold wallets, which are kept off permanent internet connection, were not affected, according to Bitget.
4. Bitget CEO Gracie Chen said the attack was likely carried out by a North Korean hacking group. The company described the event as the largest confirmed crypto theft since the start of 2026.