Bitget halts withdrawals after a hack the exchange blames on North Korea

The crypto exchange Bitget paused customer withdrawals after a hack, with Reuters reporting $350 million stolen^1,3. Bitget suspects North Korea is responsible, in an account that sizes the theft at $352 million². Other reports put the figure at more than $351 million⁵ and at $351.6 million^6,8,9, while two accounts describe $387.5 million as the amount involved^4,7.

Recovery so far is marginal. Circle and Tether froze about $318,000 in USDC and USDT linked to the hack⁴, blocking a wallet tied to the theft⁸. Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao offered public support to Bitget, posting on X that Binance and the BNB Chain ecosystem would help^6,7. Reuters set the episode against the failure of the exchange FTX in 2022¹.

Why it matters to investors

The size of the loss is disputed by a wide margin. The spread between $350 million¹ and $387.5 million⁴ is itself information: it indicates that the exchange and outside observers are still reconciling what left the platform, which is the same uncertainty facing customers whose withdrawals are suspended⁹.

The frozen sum shows the limits of stablecoin controls after the fact. About $318,000 was trapped against a loss measured in hundreds of millions^4,8, so the enforceable claw-back is a rounding error on the theft. That leaves the exchange’s own balance sheet, and the industry support Zhao has offered⁶, as the route to making customers whole⁷.

State attribution changes the character of the risk. If North Korea is responsible², exchange security becomes a sanctions and national-security matter as well as an operational one, which is the framing regulators have applied to earlier failures in the sector¹.

What to watch

When withdrawals resume and on what terms. The suspension is the immediate exposure for customers^3,9, and the reopening will indicate whether Bitget is absorbing the loss itself.

The attribution is the second open question. Bitget has said it suspects North Korea² rather than confirmed it, and the identification of the wallet that stablecoin issuers blocked⁸ is the kind of on-chain evidence that either supports that claim or does not⁴.

Whether the loss figure settles. A final number closer to $387.5 million rather than $351.6 million would mean a materially larger hole^7,8. Prices have not so far reflected distress in the wider market: bitcoin topped $87,000 in the same week, as exchange-traded fund inflows returned and the Federal Reserve proposed stablecoin rules⁹.