Bitget Hacked for $352 Million by Suspected North Korean Group

Bitget, a major cryptocurrency exchange, has been hacked in an incident that bears all the hallmarks of North Korean hackers. The breach occurred on September 24 and resulted in the loss of $351.6 million worth of various assets, including XRP, ETH, BNB, AVAX, USDT, and USDC.

The exchange has reported the incident to relevant authorities and enlisted the help of blockchain security firms Mandiant and SlowMist to investigate. Onchain analyst Specter has linked some of the stolen funds to a previous hack attributed to North Korea's Lazarus Group, but Bitget has not yet independently confirmed this attribution.

The breach affected various blockchains, including Ethereum, XRP Ledger, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Optimism, BNB Chain, and Base. The largest loss occurred on the XRP network, according to Bitget CEO Gracy Chen. Some blockchain foundations have already frozen addresses associated with the attacker, which could reduce the final loss.

Bitget's protection fund is facing its largest test yet, as losses left after the assessment will be borne by it. The fund holds 5,500 Bitcoin valued at over $464 million, and a full $351.6 million loss would amount to roughly 76% of this fund. However, Bitget has additional resources beyond the fund, including proprietary assets worth over $1 billion.