North Korean Hackers Linked to $388M Bitget Crypto Exchange Theft: CEO
Bitget said on Sept. 25 that it raised its estimate of assets taken in its Sept. 24 breach to $387.5 million from $351.6 million, after further on-chain tracing identified Zcash and TRON assets excluded from its initial accounting. CEO Gracy Chen attributed the theft to North Korean hackers in the same update.
Withdrawals remained suspended more than a day after the breach, and other exchanges including Binance and Bybit are publicly supporting efforts to freeze and trace the stolen funds. Bitget said the increased figure reflected transfers made during the original incident and that no additional unauthorized transactions had occurred.
Bitget detected unauthorized transfers from some hot wallets at 18:31 UTC on Sept. 24, suspended withdrawals while keeping deposits and trading operational, and said its security team has identified and patched the underlying vulnerability. Its investigation with blockchain security firms Mandiant and SlowMist remains underway, with further forensic findings expected.
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Background, discussion, and references
Market impact
The incident spotlights exchange hot-wallet custody risk and the freeze channel: centralized exchanges and stablecoin issuers can block stolen assets, while native coins moved to self-custodied addresses are harder to stop, a distinction relevant to the Zcash and TRON assets added to Bitget's loss accounting. Withdrawals at Bitget remain suspended, which is the direct channel through which the event touches user liquidity on that venue.
Background
Bitget is a centralized cryptocurrency exchange founded in 2018. North Korea's Lazarus Group has previously been linked to major crypto thefts, including the $1.5 billion Bybit breach in 2025 — the same event Bitget cites in describing the support it is now receiving, with Bybit updating its LazarusBounty platform to track Bitget's stolen funds. TRM Labs reported that North Korea stole $577 million across two attacks in 2026, accounting for 76% of all hack losses through April of that year.
References
Tags
#Bitget#North Korea#exchange-hack#security#Lazarus Group#TRON