Bitget CEO Sees Slim Odds of Recovering $388M Breach Funds

Bitget CEO Gracy Chen is not optimistic about recovering the $388 million stolen in last week’s security breach.

The exchange has blocked or frozen some assets, but Chen used the February 2025 Bybit hack as a warning. Bybit froze about 3.5% of the funds taken, she said. The figure covers freezing, not recovery.

“I’m actually not very optimistic because after a year or so of Bybit’s hack, they’ve only [been able to freeze] about 3.5% of the total stolen funds.”

“That’s only the freezing. It’s not about recovery yet.”

Bitget revises the loss higher

Bitget first reported a loss of $352 million. It later revised that figure to about $388 million after a more complete accounting of transfers.

The loss figure differs across accounts. TRM Labs estimated that $351.6 million moved out of Bitget’s hot and warm wallets on September 24. That estimate tracked early on-chain outflows across Ethereum, the XRP Ledger, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Optimism, BNB Chain and Base.

Bitget says its account balances remain unaffected. Cold wallets were not affected, and the exchange says private-key compromise has been ruled out. The investigation points to a compromised third-party security product that provided high-level internal credentials. Fraudulent withdrawal commands then bypassed risk controls.

Some assets have been blocked

NEAR Intents reported that it had blocked more than $50 million in assets tied to the attack and froze about $500,000. Tether and Circle also blacklisted a linked wallet, freezing $318,013 in USDT and USDC, Chen said.

Those figures show limited intervention, not a final recovery total. The brief does not state how much of the $388 million Bitget has definitively frozen or recovered.

Bitget launched a bounty program offering 5% of funds frozen and 5% of funds recovered. The exchange is also using Bybit’s LazarusBounty as one of its recovery channels. Bitget’s program excludes assets recovered through law enforcement or legal proceedings.

Withdrawals are returning in stages

Bitget resumed Bitcoin withdrawals at 08:00 UTC on September 28. Ethereum withdrawals followed at 08:00 UTC on September 29 across Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain, Arbitrum, Base and Optimism.

The exchange has contained the vulnerability, and Bitget says no further unauthorized transfers have been identified. Mandiant and SlowMist are independently investigating. Both reviews identified compromised third-party security products as the route into Bitget’s wallet environment, according to Bitget’s incident timeline.

The key issue now is not whether the breach was contained. It is whether the exchange can follow the stolen assets across blockchains and exchanges before they disappear. Chen’s comparison with Bybit suggests Bitget’s recovery prospects remain limited.