Bitget Rebuilds User Protection Fund to Above $300M After Record Hack
Bitget, the Seychelles-based cryptocurrency exchange, has restored its User Protection Fund to above $300 million after a massive hack on September 24. The fund had dipped below $200 million following the theft of about $387.5 million from its hot and warm wallets.
In a post on X, Bitget's CEO Gracy Chen confirmed that peer-to-peer (P2P) withdrawals will resume at 08:00 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), or 13:30 Indian Standard Time (IST), on Friday, October 2. This comes alongside every other asset still frozen.
The User Protection Fund is a reserve pool set up by Bitget in 2022 with a $300 million commitment. It is held in publicly listed wallets and is meant to cover platform-level losses such as hacks. The fund now holds 1,795 fewer BTC than before the breach, but its value is tied largely to the Bitcoin price.
A Proof of Reserves (PoR) report shows the crypto assets an exchange holds against the balances it owes customers. Bitget's version uses a Merkle tree, a cryptographic structure that lets users independently verify their balances were included without exposing other accounts.