Bitget CEO Gracy Chen confirmed a security breach Thursday after blockchain researchers detected unusual transactions involving wallets linked to the crypto exchange.
The exchange said $351.6 million was exposed in the incident, while Chen maintained that customer assets and Bitget’s cold-storage wallets were not compromised.
In a post on X, Chen said unauthorized transfers had been detected from several hot wallets. She also pointed to Bitget’s user protection fund, which held more than $464 million, as an additional safeguard.
“Cold wallets remain fully secure,” Chen said, adding that Bitget’s three-tier wallet system limited the breach to part of its hot- and warm-wallet layers.
Trading and deposits continued to operate, but Bitget temporarily suspended withdrawals while its security team investigated the incident.
The exchange’s announcement followed reports from on-chain analysts who had spotted unusual wallet activity. Early estimates suggested that around $183 million worth of crypto had moved from wallets associated with Bitget.
Emmett Gallic of blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence said the transactions involved three Bitget hot wallets and one cold wallet operating across multiple blockchain networks. The transferred assets included ETH, BNB, AVAX and USDT0, which were eventually consolidated into a single address.
Gallic initially estimated that about $178 million had been stolen, before reporting that additional assets were continuing to move.
Chen said Bitget planned to release a full incident report within 24 hours.
The distinction between hot and cold wallets is important in the case. Hot wallets remain connected to transaction infrastructure and are therefore more accessible, while cold wallets are designed to keep signing credentials isolated from internet-connected systems.
If the reported $351.6 million exposure is confirmed, the incident could become one of the largest crypto hacks of 2026. Earlier this month, the Liquid Network suffered a $320 million breach, although the attackers subsequently described themselves as “white hat hackers.”
Bitget’s BGB token initially declined sharply after news of the breach emerged but recovered part of the drop by 22:10 UTC. BGB was down 2.9% at the time of publication.
Bitcoin was down about 0.29% over the previous 24 hours, while ether had declined 0.2%.
The report was updated Sept. 24, 2026, at 22:10 UTC to add market reaction and at 22:05 UTC to clarify the wording describing the exploit.
