Bitget Says $352M Impacted by Hack as Exchange Assures Users of Fund Safety

Bitget has disclosed a security breach involving $351.6 million in assets, with CEO Gracy Chen saying the exchange’s cold wallets and customer funds remain secure.

Chen revealed the incident Thursday after blockchain researchers identified unusual transactions involving wallets connected to the exchange. She said unauthorized transfers had taken place from some of Bitget’s hot wallets.

Bitget’s user protection fund held more than $464 million, Chen said, adding that the fund was available as an additional safeguard for customers.

The exchange operates a three-tier wallet system, according to Chen. She said the breach was limited to parts of the hot- and warm-wallet layers, while cold wallets remained secure.

Bitget kept deposits and trading available but temporarily suspended withdrawals while its security team reviewed the incident.

The exchange’s announcement followed earlier alerts from on-chain data providers and independent researchers. Initial reports indicated that roughly $183 million worth of digital assets had moved from wallets believed to be controlled by Bitget.

Emmett Gallic, an analyst at Arkham Intelligence, said transactions involving three Bitget hot wallets and one cold wallet had been identified across several blockchain networks. The assets included ETH, BNB, AVAX and USDT0, with the funds later consolidated into one address.

Gallic initially estimated that approximately $178 million had been compromised and subsequently reported further movements from the affected wallets.

Chen said Bitget plans to publish an incident report within 24 hours detailing the breach.

Hot wallets are connected to online infrastructure used for activities such as transactions and withdrawals, making them more exposed than cold wallets. Cold-storage systems are designed to keep private signing credentials separated from internet-connected environments.

A loss of as much as $351.6 million would potentially make the Bitget incident one of the largest crypto hacks recorded in 2026. Earlier in September, the Liquid Network suffered a $320 million breach, although the attackers claimed they were “white hat hackers.”

Bitget’s BGB token dropped sharply after reports of the breach emerged but recovered part of its losses by 22:10 UTC. BGB was down 2.9% at press time.

Bitcoin was trading 0.29% lower over the previous 24 hours, while ether had declined 0.2%.

The report was updated Sept. 24, 2026, at 22:10 UTC to include market reaction and at 22:05 UTC to clarify the wording surrounding the exploit.