Circle, Tether Freeze Wallet Linked to $351 Million Bitget Hack

Circle and Tether have frozen a wallet linked to the recent $351.6 million Bitget hack, although only a small fraction of the total amount stolen is affected.

The wallet, labeled 'Bitget Exploiter 8' on Etherscan, holds 170.47 ETH, 218,023 USDT, and 99,990 USDC, with approximately $318,000 in stablecoins stuck in place due to the freeze.

Circle's quick response stands out against its handling of April's $285 million Drift hack, where critics argued it moved too slowly to blacklist wallets after an attacker moved $232 million in USDC from Solana to Ethereum using Circle's cross-chain transfer protocol.

Bitget CEO Gracy Chen ruled out a private key compromise and said the exchange's user protection fund, which holds over $464 million, covers the full loss.