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Leading cryptocurrency exchange platform Bitget suffered a major security breach this September, which market players are calling one of the largest cryptocurrency hacks this year. Its founder has since spoken up about the incident, saying the hack on the exchange may link back to North Korea.
Bitget detected unauthorized transfers from several of its hot wallets on September 24. The firm’s CEO, Gracie Chen, explained that the exchange traced IP addresses whose VPN activity closely matched patterns linked to a known North Korea-affiliated group, describing a DPRK connection as “very likely.”
Chen emphasized that the attackers never obtained private keys for any of Bitget’s hot, warm, or cold wallets. Instead, they compromised the exchange’s internal systems and moved the funds directly.
To ease users’ fears, the exchange said its user protection fund, which exceeds $464 million, is large enough to fully cover the losses.
Meanwhile, in a more recent statement shared on X, BitGet’s founder provided a detailed update this morning during a livestream lasting more than three hours, outlining the latest developments in the exchange’s security incident roughly 12 hours after it was detected.
 
The unauthorized transfers affected multiple assets, including ETH, XRP (which saw the largest single-chain loss), BNB, AVAX, USDT, USDC, and others. The impacted networks were Ethereum, the XRP Ledger, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Optimism, BNB Smart Chain and Base. All of Bitget’s on-chain cold wallets remain secure and were not compromised.
The exchange said it has contacted the foundations of every affected blockchain. Some have already confirmed that they have frozen the relevant hacker wallet addresses. Bitget is pursuing every available recovery channel and will continue to release updates as new information becomes available.
According to the founder, analysis of IP behavior patterns and on-chain data shows the attack method closely matches known tactics used by North Korean-linked hacking groups. The company has reported the incident to relevant authorities and is fully cooperating with a global investigation.
Bitget emphasized that its decentralized Bitget Wallet operates independently of the exchange’s infrastructure and was completely unaffected. User assets held in Bitget Wallet remain secure.
The founder also reiterated that Bitget’s user protection fund exceeds $464 million and is held in publicly verifiable wallet addresses. In addition, the company’s proprietary assets surpass $1 billion. User funds remain backed 1:1, and both the protection fund and user asset data can be verified on-chain.
Regarding withdrawals, Bitget’s stated goal is to restore full access as quickly as possible. The exchange said it will announce a specific recovery time window only once it is confirmed and will not commit to timelines it cannot meet.