Key points
Bitget confirmed unauthorized transfers from hot wallets detected at 18:31 UTC on Thursday, with affected funds estimated at about $351.6 million That figure is roughly double the $170 million that on-chain monitors had traced before the exchange spoke Withdrawals are suspended pending a security review, while deposits and trading continue Chief executive Gracy Chen said the loss falls within the exchange's User Protection Fund, which holds over $464 million
Bitget has confirmed a hot wallet breach substantially larger than anything visible on-chain, putting the affected sum at roughly $351.6 million and suspending withdrawals while it completes a security review.
The confirmation, posted by chief executive Gracy Chen, arrived hours after blockchain monitoring accounts began flagging unusual outflows and traced more than $170 million moving into Ether (ETH).
What The Exchange Confirmed
Bitget said its systems detected the unauthorized transfers at 18:31 UTC on Thursday and that emergency protocols were triggered within minutes.
The company said cold wallets are fully secure, describing a three-tier wallet architecture in which the breach "contained only a portion of the hot wallet and warm wallet layers." Abnormal addresses have been identified and flagged, and the exchange said law enforcement and on-chain security firms have been notified and are engaged.
Chen said Bitget will not speculate publicly on how the wallets were reached. "We will not speculate on the attack vector until the investigation is complete," she said, promising hourly updates and a full incident report including root cause analysis within 24 hours.
The Gap Between $170M And $351.6M
The most striking detail is the distance between what outsiders could see and what the exchange has admitted.
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Monitoring service MLM had reported three hot wallets and one cold wallet moving assets, with more than $170 million swapped into ether. Yellow verified one receiving address on Etherscan, 0x770b10b273fC44Fe9197D6bF20F145c2e98463Ee, which ran its first transaction at 19:05 UTC and had cleared 15 transactions within the hour while holding 4,373 ETH.
Bitget's figure is more than twice that. The exchange also disputes part of the outside account, saying cold wallets were not compromised.
What It Means For Users
Withdrawals are paused, which is the immediate practical effect. Deposits and trading remain open, and Bitget said account balances are accurate and customer assets are protected.
The backstop is the exchange's User Protection Fund, which Chen said holds more than $464 million. On those numbers the fund covers the loss with roughly $112 million to spare, a margin of about 1.3 times.
"Bitget has navigated multiple market cycles. We will not run from this," Chen said. "Every dollar and every decision will be accounted for, transparently and in full."
What Is Still Unknown
The attack vector has not been disclosed, and the exchange has declined to discuss it until its investigation closes. There is no timeline for withdrawals resuming beyond the completion of the security review.
The promised incident report, due within 24 hours, is the next thing to watch, and whether the $351.6 million estimate holds once it is published.
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