Bitget Blames North Korea for $352M Hack Amid Recovery Efforts

Bitget's $352 million security breach has left the exchange reeling, but CEO Gracy Chen believes she knows who may be behind it. During a live Q&A session on X following the incident, Chen suggested that North Korean hackers could be responsible for the massive theft.

The preliminary findings indicate that IP addresses linked to VPN services used by a North Korean group match those of the exchange's compromised systems. Chen noted that investigators have identified similarities with previous attacks attributed to North Korea, which is estimated to have been involved in $2.02 billion worth of crypto theft in 2025 alone.

The hack saw hackers breach Bitget's hot and warm wallet infrastructure, transferring funds directly without forging user withdrawal requests. Chen assured users that the exchange does not believe the breach was an inside job, stating 'They did not forge user withdrawal requests, nor did they obtain our private keys of the cold wallet and any hot, warm wallet.'

Bitget is currently working with blockchain foundations and other partners to recover some of the stolen funds. Chen revealed that some of the stolen assets have already been recovered, but declined to specify an amount.