Bitget Hack: $387 Million Tracked Across Chains in Record Time

The Bitget hack on September 24th was a massive heist, with $387 million stolen from the exchange. But what followed was a remarkable display of forensic tracking by Chainalysis investigators.

Using in-house AI and custom automation, they were able to compress over 20 hours of manual bridge reconciliation into under 10 minutes. The speed mattered, as hundreds of transfers followed the attack, with funds moving between networks including Ethereum and Bitcoin.

The stolen funds left Bitget across 23 transfers and reached four chains within the first three hours. Ethereum accounted for 49.7%, $XRP 40.8%, Zcash 7.6%, and Tron 1.8% of the total amount.

Chainalysis identified several laundering mechanisms, including cross-chain liquidity protocols, messaging protocols, instant swaps, and laundering services. The stolen $XRP created a particularly messy trail, as it was moved through a cross-chain liquidity protocol and received Bitcoin on another network.