Bitget Resumes BTC Withdrawals After $388M Breach

Crypto exchange Bitget has resumed Bitcoin withdrawals after a security breach that compromised nearly $388 million in assets. The attack, which occurred on September 24, affected part of Bitget's hot and warm wallet infrastructure, but its cold wallets remained secure.

Bitget initially reported the stolen amount as $351.6 million but later revised it to $387.5 million after accounting for additional transfers on Zcash and Tron. The exchange resumed Bitcoin withdrawals first, followed by Ether and USDT withdrawals over the coming days.

'We restored BTC first because the withdrawal pipeline is the first to be completed,' said Bitget CEO Gracy Chen during a recent ask-me-anything session. According to the schedule, ETH withdrawals are set to resume on Tuesday across Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain, Arbitrum, Base, and Optimism, followed by USDT on Wednesday.

Bitget has called on THORChain, a decentralized protocol for swapping assets between blockchains, to refuse services to addresses linked to the attack. However, THORChain said its network halt is an emergency security mechanism that affects the protocol broadly and 'is not a selective freeze of specific funds or an individual swap.'