Bitget Faces Uphill Battle to Recover $388 Million After Breach
Bitget CEO Gracy Chen has expressed limited confidence that the cryptocurrency exchange will rec over a substantial share of the roughly $388 million stolen in its September 24 security breach.
Chen pointed to the 2025 Bybit hack as a useful comparison, noting the difficulty of recovering assets once attackers move them across multiple blockchains and services. Bitget initially estimated the loss at $351.6 million before raising it to about $387.5 million after identifying additional assets on the Zcash and TRON networks. Reuters and the Financial Times have reported on the revised scale of the breach.
Recovery Efforts Face Obstacles
Bitget has launched a recovery bounty program offering eligible participants 5% of funds they help freeze and another 5% for funds they directly help rec over. The exchange said some affected assets have already been frozen through cooperation with exchanges, blockchain projects and security firms.
However, the attacker has continued moving assets. CoinDesk reported that about $83 million in stolen XRP had been transferred from several holding wallets, while other stolen assets remained outside effective freeze mechanisms. The hacker also moved about $6.3 million in ether into bitcoin through THORChain, according to CoinDesk.
The exchange has also asked other crypto networks and services to block addresses linked to the attacker. Those efforts face technical limits because decentralized systems do not always provide centralized mechanisms for freezing individual wallets.
Customer Funds Covered by Protection Fund
Bitget has said its User Protection Fund will c over the financial impact of the breach, leaving customer balances unaffected. The exchange reported that the vulnerability has been identified and remediated, while Mandiant and SlowMist continue to assist with the investigation.
Bitget began restoring withdrawals in phases on September 28. Bitcoin withdrawals started first, followed by ether on September 29, USDT on September 30 and other assets, fiat withdrawals and peer-to-peer services on October 2.
The breach remains a major test of crypto exchanges’ ability to rec over stolen assets after attackers move funds rapidly across networks. Bitget’s protection fund may shield customers from the immediate financial loss, but recovering the stolen cryptocurrency itself remains a separate and uncertain challenge.
