Bitget Restores Withdrawals After $388 Million Breach

Bitget is restoring normal operations after a security breach that resulted in the loss of $388 million in user funds. Withdrawals for Bitcoin, Ether and USDt have resumed, while access to all other tokens is scheduled to return Friday.

CEO Gracy Chen announced the update in a Wednesday post on X. Bitget’s Protection Fund has reached $309 million, and Chen described it as a source of funds for the exchange’s recovery.

“The Protection Fund was created for moments like this and absorbed the financial impact of the incident,” Chen wrote.

Bitget has not identified those responsible for the breach. Chen previously indicated that the investigation was considering an insider attack and possible involvement by North Korean hackers.

The exchange has launched a bounty program offering 5% of frozen funds and 5% of recovered funds to people who help trace and retrieve assets linked to the breach.

Blockchain investigator ZachXBT reported Wednesday that wallets connected to the attack transferred about $3.8 million worth of Zcash to the Ironwood privacy pool. The transfers represented about 14% of the 18,917 Zcash tokens reported stolen in the incident.

NEAR Intents, a cross-chain transaction platform, reported that it had blocked $50 million linked to the Bitget attackers.

Bitget established its Protection Fund in January 2022 with 5,500 Bitcoin. The fund was created to reimburse users for losses that were not caused by misconduct by the user or the platform. Bitget has said the fund can be deployed immediately when needed.