A massive $387.5 million breach at Bitget has just set the record for the biggest crypto theft of the year. The scale of the attack immediately put the whole tech industry on high alert, especially as early evidence ties the entire operation straight back to state-sponsored hackers in North Korea.
Bitget CEO Gracy Chen went live on X to break down what happened. He noted that security teams traced the breach to IP addresses and VPNs previously linked to Pyongyang’s cyber units. Data from TRM Labs shows that North Korean groups are now responsible for nearly three-quarters of all stolen crypto in 2026 (via TechCrunch).
How the hackers tricked the exchange into approving the thef
The way the attackers pulled this off is what makes the case so unusual. They didn’t bother trying to steal private keys or force their way into offline cold wallets. Instead, they compromised a backend software system, fed fake transfer data into the platform, and tricked Bitget’s own automated authorization checks into signing off on the withdrawals.
Once the system gave the green light, 19 separate transactions drained funds across Ethereum, XRP Ledger, Avalanche, BNB Chain, Arbitrum, TRON, and Zcash. Security teams at Bubblemaps and MistTrack watched the attackers quickly swap stolen assets into Ether—even dropping $19.67 million in USDT0 at 5% over market price just to trade fast—before routing everything through Tornado Cash and THORChain.
Protection funds, security audits, and paused withdrawals
Despite the huge loss, Bitget confirmed that its offline cold storage stayed completely secure throughout the attack. For users, the biggest relief is that Bitget’s $464 million User Protection Fund will absorb the full $387.5 million hit, meaning customer account balances won’t take a loss.
Cybersecurity firms Mandiant and SlowMist are already working on the technical investigation, while Bybit CEO Ben Zhou offered access to their LazarusBounty platform to help trace the funds on-chain. Deposits and spot trading are still running normally on Bitget, but withdrawals remain temporarily paused while engineers fix and reinforce the backend signing system.
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