Bitget confirms $351.6 million security breach and suspends withdrawals

Crypto exchange Bitget has confirmed unauthorized transfers affecting approximately $351.6 million in assets and temporarily suspended withdrawals while it investigates the incident. For high-risk PSPs and merchants, the detail that matters is simple: the exchange says deposits and trading are still running, but withdrawal flow has been paused and the affected funds sit inside its User Protection Fund.

1. Bitget said its security systems detected the transfers at 18:31 UTC on Thursday, involving a limited number of hot wallets. The exchange then activated emergency response procedures and said the breach was contained to part of its hot and warm wallet layers.
2. CEO Gracy Chen said the cold wallets remained secure, user account balances remained accurate, and deposits and trading continue to operate normally. Withdrawals, however, have been temporarily suspended while Bitget conducts a security review.
3. The exchange said it has flagged the addresses associated with the transfers and contacted law enforcement and onchain security firms. Bitget has not disclosed how the wallets were compromised and said it would not speculate on the attack vector while the investigation is ongoing.
4. Chen said the full amount affected falls within Bitget’s User Protection Fund, which currently holds more than $464 million. Bitget also said it will provide hourly updates and publish a full incident report, including a root-cause analysis and corrective actions, within 24 hours.

For operators in crypto and other high-risk verticals, this is the familiar split-screen: wallet infrastructure under pressure, but the exchange trying to keep the rest of the machine running. In practice, that means payment and treasury teams watching whether settlement, withdrawals, and balance integrity stay separated when one wallet layer gets hit.