Bitget Exchange Hit by $351.6 Million Hack Amid Withdrawal Freeze

Bitget, a major cryptocurrency exchange, has confirmed that it was hacked for around $351.6 million in assets on September 24 at 18:31 UTC. According to Bitget's CEO Gracy Chen, the breach only affected portions of the company's hot and warm wallet systems.

The attack was discovered when suspicious movements were noted from a few of Bitget's online wallets. The exchange temporarily removed permission for withdrawals and alerted its emergency team. After investigating, they found that unauthorized transfers were made to flagged addresses.

Bubblemaps, a blockchain analysis company, estimated that around $192 million had been drained from the wallets through different networks, but Bitget believes the actual amount is higher. The affected assets included Ether, BNB, Avalanche, Tether, USDC, and XAUT.

Bitget has assured users that their protection fund has enough to cover the loss, which amounts to about 76% of its declared worth. However, it's unclear whether the fund will be used immediately or if some of the stolen assets can be frozen or recovered first.