Bitget blames North Korea for $387.5M crypto wallet raid

Bitget's CEO has confirmed that a cyberattack, believed to be orchestrated by North Korea, resulted in the theft of approximately $387.5 million worth of digital assets from the exchange's wallets. Initially estimated at $351.6 million, the loss increased after identifying additional assets on Zcash and TRON. Blockchain intelligence company Arkham estimated the theft at $350 million, with $228 million leaving Bitget's wallets within 18 minutes.

XRP, ETH, USDT, USDC, and Tether Gold were among the stolen assets. Bitget's cold wallets and customer balances remained unaffected, and the company holds more than $464 million in its User Protection Fund. Bitget's self-custody product, Bitget Wallet, operates on separate infrastructure, allowing users to continue deposits and trades while withdrawals are temporarily suspended.

The exchange engaged incident response firms Mandiant and SlowMist for investigation assistance. Industry peers MEXC, Binance, and Bybit offered support, with Bybit CEO Ben Zhou stating that Bitget had previously aided it following a $1.5 billion theft. Bitget attributes the attack to the breached backend system of its wallet service, ruling out private key leakage.

The specific intrusion methods are under investigation, and a full report will be released upon completion. Ben Zhou mentioned that North Korea is a likely culprit due to their history of hacking crypto exchanges.