About $351 million in cryptocurrency left the Bitget exchange without authorization on September 24, making it the largest crypto theft of the year so far. Bitget says its systems flagged the transfers at 18:31 UTC and that it suspended withdrawals soon after.
The money came from hot wallets, the internet-connected accounts an exchange uses to process everyday withdrawals. Bitget says its cold wallets, which are kept offline, were not touched. CEO Gracy Chen put the loss at about $351.6 million and said the breach was "highly consistent with known patterns of North Korean hacker organizations."
Two numbers
Not every report agrees on the size. TechCrunch uses the $351 million figure from Bitget's own statements, while The Register puts it at $387.5 million.
The gap has not been explained. Bitget has not published a final figure.
The attribution also rests on the company's word for now. Chen's statement describes a match with known patterns, not a confirmed finding by law enforcement. The blockchain analysis firm TRM Labs estimates that North Korea was behind about three quarters of all crypto stolen in 2026.
Who pays
Bitget says customers will not lose money. Its user protection fund holds more than $464 million, which covers the full loss, according to the company. It gave no date for when withdrawals resume and promised a full incident report.
The theft tops one of about $340 million earlier in September, in which most of the funds were later recovered.
