Bitget confirms $351.6 million breach and pauses withdrawals

The briefing

Crypto exchange Bitget says $351.6 million was exposed in a breach of its systems on Thursday, a theft that could rank as the year's biggest exchange hack. Chief executive Gracy Chen put the number out in a post on X, saying the money moved out of parts of the exchange's hot and warm wallets. She insisted cold storage and customer funds were untouched.

Investigators at Arkham Intelligence followed the stolen funds across three hot wallets and one cold wallet spanning several blockchains, with ether, BNB, AVAX, and the USDT0 stablecoin gathered into a single address. The first estimates were far lower, near $183 million; the total grew as the analysts traced the money further.

Bitget has frozen withdrawals while it completes a security review. Deposits and trading are still running. The company points to a user protection fund it says holds more than $464 million, and Chen promised a full incident report within 24 hours. Bitget's own token, BGB, dropped hard when the news broke and later recovered part of the loss.

Why it matters

The pattern is familiar and worth naming plainly. Exchanges keep the bulk of customer money in cold storage, offline and out of reach, but they need hot wallets connected to process withdrawals. Attackers keep hitting the hot layer because it is the one they can reach. Bitget's three tier setup kept the damage inside the warm and hot wallets, which is what the design is supposed to do. Even so, $351.6 million counts among the largest hauls of the year, after the Liquid Network lost $320 million earlier this month.

The test now is transparency. Bitget promised an incident report within 24 hours and says its $464 million protection fund backstops users. How complete that report is, and whether withdrawals reopen on schedule, will decide whether this becomes a footnote or a confidence crisis.

Key details

• $351.6 million exposed in Thursday breach; money moved out of the hot and warm wallet layers.
• CEO Gracy Chen says cold storage and customer funds are untouched; withdrawals paused during a security review.
• Arkham followed the stolen funds across three hot wallets and one cold wallet spanning several blockchains into a single address.
• Assets included ether, BNB, AVAX, and USDT0; early estimates were far lower, near $183 million.
• Exchange points to a user protection fund it says holds more than $464 million; full incident report promised within 24 hours.
• Deposits and trading still running; BGB dropped hard on the news, then recovered part of the loss.