Major Bitget Security Breach: Tracing the Flow of Stolen Assets

On-chain data from Lookonchain reveals that Bitget exchange suffered a significant security breach on September 24, targeting its hot wallet infrastructure. Early estimates place the total loss at approximately $351.6 million. The subsequent movement of these funds has drawn intense scrutiny from the crypto community.

On-Chain Movement and Conversion

Blockchain analysis indicates that the attacker has already converted a substantial portion of the stolen funds on EVM-compatible chains. A total of 67,982 ETH, valued at roughly $183 million, has been traced back to this incident.

One transaction stands out: the exploiter utilized a decentralized exchange protocol to swap nearly $20 million for over 7,000 ETH in just six minutes. This rapid conversion occurred at a premium of about 5%, suggesting the attacker prioritized speed over optimal pricing.

Official Response and Mitigation Steps

Following the incident, Bitget CEO Gracy Chen issued a public statement. She confirmed that the unauthorized transfers affected some of the platform's hot and warm wallets but asserted that cold wallet storage remained secure and user account balances were untouched.

Deposit and trading services continue to operate normally. However, as a precautionary measure, withdrawal functionality has been temporarily suspended pending the completion of a thorough security review.

User Protection and Unresolved Questions

A key point in Chen's statement was the activation of the platform's User Protection Fund. She stated that all financial losses from this event would be covered in full by this fund, which reportedly holds over $464 million in assets for such contingencies.

Contradicting this narrative, data from analytics firm Arkham suggests funds originated from 3 hot wallets and at least one address tagged as a 'cold storage' wallet. This discrepancy has raised questions about the integrity of all wallet systems. The specific attack vector employed by the hacker has not yet been disclosed to the public.