Bitget suspects North Korean hackers may be behind a security breach involving about $351.6 million in digital assets. The crypto exchange has suspended withdrawals while investigators examine the intrusion. CEO Gracy Chen said preliminary evidence includes VPN-linked internet addresses associated with a North Korean hacking group. Bitget says customer balances remain accurate, while deposits and trading continue.

The exchange detected unauthorized wallet transfers Thursday afternoon stateside. According to Chen, the incident involved 19 transfers from parts of Bitget's hot and warm wallet systems. Its cold wallets remained secure.

Earlier blockchain estimates placed the outflows near $183 million. Bitget later said those estimates missed activity across several affected networks, bringing its reported loss to about $351.6 million.

Bitget's investigation found that the attacker entered a critical backend wallet system. The intruder then spoofed transfer information and triggered the exchange's authorization-signing process, according to Chen.

The attack affected ether, XRP, USDT, USDC, Avalanche and BNB. Transfers occurred across Ethereum, XRP Ledger, Avalanche, BNB Smart Chain and Arbitrum. Bitget says its security team has contained the breach and stopped additional unauthorized transfers.

Chen also ruled out a private key compromise. Investigators continue examining exactly how the attacker gained initial access to the backend infrastructure. Bitget has not disclosed a confirmed technical root cause.

What will Bitget's promised incident report reveal about the exact weakness that allowed an attacker to trigger its authorization process?

Bitget continues to block withdrawals while technical teams repair and strengthen the affected infrastructure. At the same time, deposits, spot trading and futures trading continue normally, according to the exchange.

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