Bitget says $351.6 million affected in hot wallet breach, pauses withdrawals
Bitget reports a $351.6 million breach
Bitget, a crypto exchange where people buy, sell and store digital assets, says about $351.6 million was affected in a system breach on Thursday. CEO Gracy Chen announced the incident in a post on X.
Chen said there were unauthorized transfers from some of the exchange's hot wallets. A hot wallet is a crypto wallet that stays connected to the internet so it can process transactions and withdrawals.
She said user funds and cold wallets are safe. A cold wallet is kept offline, which is meant to protect the keys needed to move funds.
Key numbers and immediate impact
- Bitget put the amount affected at $351.6 million. The headline on the CoinDesk report rounds this to $352 million.
- Chen said the exchange's user protection fund holds more than $464 million.
- Deposits and trading are still online, but withdrawals are paused temporarily while a security review is completed.
- Blockchain researchers flagged unusual wallet movements before the announcement. They first estimated that around $183 million in digital assets had left wallets labeled as belonging to Bitget.
- Chen said an incident report would be published within 24 hours.
What CEO Gracy Chen said
In her post on X, Chen said: "Cold wallets remain fully secure. Bitget operates a three-tier wallet architecture — the breach contained only a portion of the hot wallet and warm wallet layers."
She also said the unauthorized transfers came from some of the exchange's hot wallets, and that deposits and trading remain available while withdrawals are paused "temporarily" for the security review.
What blockchain researchers flagged
Emmett Gallic, an analyst at blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence, said in an X post that the transactions involved three Bitget hot wallets and one cold wallet across multiple blockchains, with the funds consolidated into a single address. The assets included ETH, BNB, AVAX and USDT0, according to his analysis.
In his posts, Gallic wrote: "Looks like Bitget just got hacked for $178M," and noted in a separate post that more funds were moving.
The early estimates from researchers — around $178 million to $183 million — are lower than the $351.6 million figure later given by the exchange. The supplied material does not explain the difference in the two numbers.
What is confirmed
Bitget's CEO publicly acknowledged a breach and said unauthorized transfers took place from some hot wallets. The exchange says cold wallets and user funds were not affected, that a user protection fund holds over $464 million, and that withdrawals are paused during a security review. Deposits and trading were said to remain online. Chen committed to publishing an incident report within 24 hours.
What is still unclear
The supplied material does not identify who carried out the transfers, how the breach happened, or whether any funds have been recovered. It also does not explain why the exchange's total of $351.6 million is larger than the roughly $178 million to $183 million that researchers reported earlier. The final loss figure and the timing of when withdrawals will resume have not been confirmed.
Why this matters for crypto users
Users of the exchange cannot move their funds out while withdrawals are paused, even though deposits and trading continue. The event is described by CoinDesk as potentially the biggest hack of 2026, and it follows another incident earlier in September, when the Liquid Network lost $320 million in a separate hack where the attackers claimed to be "white hat hackers." That claim has not been confirmed here.
Market reaction
Bitget's native token, BGB, fell sharply after news of the hack circulated, then recovered somewhat by 22:10 UTC. It was down 2.9% at the time of the report. Bitcoin was down about 0.29% and ether about 0.2% over the previous 24 hours of trading, according to the report.
What happens next
Chen said the exchange would publish an incident report within 24 hours of her post. Withdrawals are expected to stay paused until the security review is finished, but no specific restart time was given.
Sources
Newisty Editorial Team covers technology, cryptocurrency, digital products, online platforms, developer tools and the wider digital economy. Our content is researched from official sources, company announcements, public documentation, market data and other primary or reputable sources. Articles are reviewed and edited before publication for clarity, accuracy and useful context.