Bitget Hack Exposes Weakness in Cross-Chain Liquidity Protocols
A massive hack on crypto exchange Bitget has been investigated using AI tracing, significantly speeding up blockchain forensics. According to Chainalysis, its investigators used in-house artificial intelligence to cut a bridge reconciliation task that would normally take over 20 hours down to under 10 minutes while tracing the $387 million drained from Bitget.
The breakdown comes from a Chainalysis report dated October 1. The blockchain analytics firm said its investigators built custom automation specifically for the case after Bitget detected unauthorized transfers on September 24, and the tool helped connect fragmented transaction trails that would otherwise look unrelated when viewed on separate networks.
Within the attack's first three hours, Chainalysis tracked 23 separate transfers that drained roughly $387 million from Bitget. According to its analysis, 49.7% went to Ethereum, 40.8% to XRP, 7.6% to Zcash and 1.8% to Tron.
Chainalysis linked the theft to North Korean actors, whose cumulative 2026 crypto theft now tops $1 billion. Circle and Tether froze about $318,000 in linked USDC and USDT by September 26.