According to the latest BeInCrypto interview with Bitget CEO Gracy Chen, the $387.5 million breach on September 24 was carried out by North Korean hackers who manipulated the exchange's internal withdrawal process. As of October 6, withdrawals have been fully reopened, though the exchange's tracker shows approximately $1.07 million frozen, representing about 0.28% of the total loss. The investigation remains ongoing, with Chen acknowledging gaps in understanding how attackers acquired knowledge of Bitget's systems. A preliminary internal investigation found no evidence of insider involvement, but the CEO could not explain how the attackers learned enough about the exchange to build a dedicated withdrawal tool.
Chen defended Bitget's financial position, stating the company had replenished its protection fund above $300 million after using bitcoin from it to meet withdrawals. She emphasized that the company holds more than $1 billion in capital outside the fund, though she declined to provide exact figures. When asked about another loss exceeding the protection fund, Chen said Bitget could absorb it. The exchange has implemented several security measures including isolating affected systems, resetting internal credentials, and tightening access to sensitive systems with additional withdrawal approvals. Chen acknowledged that no system is perfect, stating that alerts need to be interpreted correctly and monitoring should respond faster.
According to Chen's interview, the impact on daily operations and profitability was described as limited. A couple of institutional clients withdrew large sums when Bitcoin withdrawals reopened, but customers have since begun returning. Chen reported that within the last few days, many customers came back already. She noted that an hour after Ethereum withdrawals reopened, inflows exceeded outflows, and described strong inflows when USDT withdrawals resumed. The CEO provided no specific figures showing the scale of deposits or how much withdrawn capital had returned, leaving questions about the actual business recovery impact.
As reported by crypto.news, Bitget Wallet COO Alvin Kan emphasized that self-custody should reduce damage from single security failures without requiring users to become security specialists. According to Kan's account, giving people control over their assets places more responsibility on wallets, devices, and user decisions, requiring wallet developers to address these risks as part of the product. The central custody question, as Kan described, concerns how many people can be affected when a shared system fails, with large asset pools depending on common signing or administrative controls potentially exposing multiple users to the same breach.
Chen revealed that Bitget has discussed forming an alliance involving exchanges and major protocols to combat these attacks, though these talks remain preliminary. She acknowledged the difficulty of aligning participants' interests and noted that sharing useful intelligence would require companies to disclose more about their internal security. Chen rejected suggestions that protocols like THORChain are chiefly responsible for exchange hacks, stating that exchanges should work with protocols to make laundering harder while acknowledging responsibility for their own security. She emphasized that prevention and response both need improvement rather than leaving users responsible for understanding every security threat.
