Bitget Records $463 Million in Outflows After $387.5 Million Hack as Withdrawals Reopen

Bitget saw around $463 million in net outflows in the 24 hours leading into Tuesday, Sept. 29, after the exchange began restoring withdrawals following this year’s worst cryptocurrency hack. For PSPs and crypto operators, the sequence is the familiar one: suspend withdrawals, reassure users, then watch the liquidity leave faster than the PR statement can keep up.

1. Bitget said last week that assets equivalent to about $387.5 million were stolen in an attack. The company said its security systems detected unauthorized transfers involving a limited number of hot wallets, triggered emergency response procedures and launched a full investigation.
2. Withdrawals were suspended during the security review and then reopened in stages, Bloomberg News reported. Bitcoin withdrawals resumed first on Monday, followed by Ether and Tether’s USDT stablecoin. Withdrawals of other tokens, as well as fiat and peer-to-peer services, are due to resume on Oct. 2, Bitget said on its website.
3. Bloomberg said the $463 million in outflows was the largest one-day outflow since DefiLlama began tracking proof-of-reserves four years ago. The report also said the outflows amounted to upwards of 10% of Bitget’s reserves.
4. Bitget had pointed customers to a $464 million user protection fund, but Bloomberg said that fund has now dropped below $200 million, citing the three wallet addresses that Bitget identified as the source of the funds. Bitget CEO Gracy Chen told Bloomberg by email that the Protection Fund is being used to absorb the financial impact of the incident and will be replenished with the company’s own capital, with the fund targeted to be above $300 million within one week.
5. The Bloomberg report said the withdrawal wave was another setback as Bitget tries to recover from a hack that cybersecurity experts have linked to North Korea. Separately, a report earlier this month from CoinGecko said hacks and thefts cost cryptocurrency platforms more than $3.6 billion in the last 18 months, with around 88% of the stolen funds and roughly 60% of the affected platforms having completed independent security audits.