Bitget Faces Grim Recovery Prospects After $387.5 Million Cyberattack

Bitget, a major cryptocurrency exchange, recently suffered a massive cyberattack that resulted in the theft of approximately $387.5 million. According to CEO Gracy Chen, the exchange does not expect to recover a large portion of the stolen funds. In an interview, Chen stated that only a limited portion of the stolen assets may be recovered, with around $1.1 million of the stolen assets having been frozen during recovery efforts.

Despite the significant loss, Bitget has taken steps to address the financial impact of the theft. The exchange has replenished its Protection Fund to above $300 million and has completed the restoration of withdrawals. Chen emphasized that user account balances remained unaffected throughout the incident, and the exchange is working with investigators to trace the stolen assets.

The investigation into the attack has revealed that the hackers compromised two third-party security products, which provided them with access to Bitget's production wallet systems. SlowMist, one of the firms investigating the attack, found that the earliest malicious activity in available logs dated back to August 31. Mandiant, another firm involved in the investigation, reported that the attackers bypassed Bitget's standard customer-facing withdrawal process without stealing private keys from the exchange.