$100M Bitget Heist: Bot Glitch & Arbitrage Chaos

Crypto hacks are still happening. We recently published an article on this topic. Whether we like it or not, they are still part of our sector. The most recent hack happened only a few days ago. Bitget, a centralized exchange or CEX got exploited. It got drained for $100 million.

So, what happened with this exploit at Bitget? Let’s take a closer look.

What Happened During the Bitget Exploit?

So, there were a couple of factors that made this Bitget exploit possible. For example,

• A glitched trading bot 
• Insane arbitrage loops 
• A lesser-known gaming token called $VOXEL.
  

This went down on Sunday 20th April. What happened next is quite stunning. One trader managed to turn $100 into a $3 million profit. He did this in only 10 minutes. Another trader managed to secure $42 million. Before Bitget realized what was going on, two hours passed. By that time, the ticker stood at $100 million. Various other traders also figured out this vulnerability.

So, what happened? Well, at the root of all this, there was a trading error with the Bitget market-making bot. If you understood how to work this, you could make a quick buck, or more. As the samples above show. So, let’s get a bit more into detail here.

Neel’s X account describes the sequel as follows,

• 19:22 UTC – A wallet with over $3 million appears on the blockchain, involving $VOXEL trading.  
• 19:29 UTC – Some profits are being turned into BNB/SOL and taken out.  
• 19:33 UTC – Users say they “missed the feast.” 
• 21:32 UTC – A $100 million exploit is confirmed, with Bitget’s bot identified as the source. 

 Source: X

How Did the Bitget Exploit Happen?

So, in two hours’ time, traders managed to get $100 million. Here are the details of how they did this.

Bitget had a bot that worked with a 3-second cycle. This involved rising and falling prices, due to the malfunctioning market-making bot. This is how you got access to the money.

• Buy the low price.
• Sell the high price.
• Repeat this every 3 seconds.
• To increase profits, use leverage.
• Easy money comes your way.
  

So, by exploiting price differences (arbitrage), experienced traders could make a quick buck. It also helped the traders that it took Bitget over two hours to figure out what had happened.

The $VOXEL token only had a $23 million market cap before this exploit started. It also had low liquidity but a small but active market. This made it an ideal target for the exploit. The combination with the failing Bitget bot opened it up to take advantage of. Or manipulate the arbitrage option, if you prefer that.  

The traders involved knew what they were doing. As quickly as they could, they withdrew their profits in $BNB and $SOL. Well before there was any reaction by Bitget.

So, on one side, we have a malfunctioning Bitget bot. On the other hand, we have some smart traders who were ready to exploit this vulnerability. However, Bitget didn’t have any control measures or tools in place. For example, Bitget didn’t have any circuit breakers or no trade pauses in place. Furthermore, their market-making bot changed prices every 3 seconds. Most importantly, it took Bitget over two hours to figure out that something was wrong.

Eventually, it seems that Bitget froze some accounts. And The result seems to be that public trust in Bitget’s platform is temporarily low.

What Can We Learn from This?

Keep in mind that you can never ‘trust’ a CEX. Don’t leave your funds on a CEX, instead, move it to your noncustodial wallet. Remember, not your keys, not your crypto. This case also shows that bots can malfunction. Because there’s not much or any regulation, often, there’s also no accountability. 

Despite this mishap, Bitget still ranks as 5th biggest CEX on CoinGecko. Be safe out there.

Disclaimer

The information discussed by Altcoin Buzz is not financial advice. This is for educational, entertainment and informational purposes only. Any information or strategies are thoughts and opinions relevant to accepted levels of risk tolerance of the writer/reviewers, and their risk tolerance may be different from yours.

We are not responsible for any losses that you may incur as a result of any investments directly or indirectly related to the information provided. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are high-risk investments, so please do your due diligence.

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