Bitget halts withdrawals after detecting unauthorized transfers of about $351.6 million

Cryptocurrency exchange Bitget said on 24 September that its security system detected unauthorized transfers from several of its hot wallets. The affected amount is estimated at about $351.6 million, and withdrawals have been temporarily suspended.

What happened

According to Bitget, the unauthorized operations were flagged on 24 September at 18:31 UTC. The company immediately activated emergency response procedures and launched a full investigation into the affected wallets and the flow of funds. In its statement, Bitget said the incident was limited to some hot and warm wallets, while cold wallets and most of the assets held on the platform were not affected.

What the company says

Chief Executive Officer Gracy Chen wrote on X that Bitget's cold wallets remain fully secure and the breach was confined to part of its hot-wallet and warm-wallet layers. User funds are safe, she said, and the full loss is covered by the exchange's user protection fund, which currently exceeds $464 million. Account balances remain intact, deposits and trading continue to operate normally, and withdrawals are suspended for additional security checks.

On-chain data and next steps

Earlier on-chain data showed that more than $170 million in assets, including Ether, Tether's USDT, Circle's USDC, Avalanche and BNB, had been moved from Bitget wallets to a single address, with some of the incoming assets swapped into ether. Bitget said it has identified the addresses linked to the abnormal movements and is tracking them, and has shared details of the incident with law enforcement agencies and leading blockchain security firms.

The exchange said it will not speculate about the attack vector while the investigation is ongoing and plans to publish a full report on the cause of the incident and follow-up measures within 24 hours. Withdrawals will resume once the security review is completed.