Crypto · updated 1h ago · 2 min read
Circle And Tether Freeze Bitget Exploiter 8 Wallet After $351.6 Million Hack
Bitget hack stolen about $351.6 million; withdrawals paused. Circle and Tether froze a Bitget exploiter wallet with ~$318k in USDT/USDC; ETH unaffected.
14 outlets told this the same way.
4 of 5 outlets skipped it: bitget had investigators link VPN IPs to North Korea group.
14outlets compared
Freeze After Bitget Heist
Circle and Tether froze a wallet linked to Thursday's $351.6 million Bitget hack, blacklisting a wallet holding about $318,000 in stablecoins. Circle blacklisted the address labeled "Bitget Exploiter 8" at 05:00 UTC Friday, and the wallet held about 170.47 ETH, 218,023 USDT and 99,990 USDC. MistTrack said Tether has since banned the wallet too, leaving roughly $318,000 in stablecoins stuck.
MistTrack's tracker showed other exploiter addresses still holding more than 63,000 ETH, which no issuer can freeze. Bitget CEO Gracy Chen said attackers compromised a backend system in the exchange's wallet infrastructure, spoofed transaction data and triggered its authorization process to move funds out.
Withdrawals Paused, Losses Shift
Bitget stopped allowing customer withdrawals after the theft of crypto worth approximately $351.6 million in a hack, while Gracy Chen said all user funds were safe. Chen told Reuters, "Withdrawals remain temporarily suspended as a security precaution, not because of any shortfall in funds," and Bitget said the loss was covered by its own funds. Bitget disclosed on the 25th that digital assets drained in the hack are estimated at approximately $387.5 million, and the exchange planned to announce its withdrawal resumption schedule by 1 p.m. on the 26th.
Bitget said via its official X account, "Our analysis estimates that assets worth approximately $387.5 million were affected," and it added, "We plan to announce the withdrawal resumption schedule by 1 p.m. on the 26th," Bitget CEO Gracy Chen said investigators identified internet protocol addresses linked to VPN services previously used by a North Korean hacking group, and she said the pattern of the attack resembled earlier operations attributed to the country.
What Can and Cannot Be Frozen
Circle and Tether's freeze covered only a small fraction of the total stolen funds, because the wallet also held about 170.47 ETH that issuers cannot freeze. MistTrack's tracker showed other exploiter addresses still holding more than 63,000 ETH, which no issuer can freeze, and the stablecoin freeze left that larger portion liquid. Circle and Tether froze about 99,990 USDC and 218,023 USDT at the contract level, and the action came hours after attackers drained $351.6 million from the exchange on Thursday.
Bitget said attackers compromised a backend system, spoofed transaction data and triggered its authorization-signing process to move funds out, while Chen ruled out a private key compromise. Bybit CEO Ben Zhou said his team was standing by to assist Bitget, and he said Bybit was updating its LazarusBounty platform to help trace the stolen funds.