- Bybit, Bitget, Tether, and Circle are among the major crypto institutions that have immediately launched efforts to track and recover the $387.5 million in compromised assets from the recent Bitget hack.
- The crypto community met Bitget CEO Gracy Chen’s request for THORChain to refuse services from blocked addresses with mixed responses.
- Bitget updated its recorded losses from the heist as it works to resume withdrawals for affected customers.
Bitget, a leading unified exchange (UEX), is currently facing a major ordeal after an attacker siphoned $387.5 million through a vulnerability in its hot wallet infrastructure. Thanks to its combination of proactive measures and timely intervention, it contained the incident.
Despite that, the compromised funds remain in limbo. Meanwhile, key industry participants have banded together to help Bitget recover its losses, showing solidarity amid trying times.
Bybit Extends a Hand to Bitget
Bybit CEO Ben Zhou was among the first heads of a large exchange to express support to Bitget. The company notably fell to a $1.5 billion heist from the North Korean hacking outfit Lazarus Group in early 2025. It’s still considered the largest theft in the crypto industry.
Zhou claimed that his team has already updated its Lazarus bounty program to monitor the movement of the hundreds of millions of dollars the hacker stole from Bitget. It aims to eventually capture the perpetrator by tracing the funds’ flow.
The Bybit CEO highlighted that their effort is simply returning the favor to Bitget, as the exchange, led by CEO Gracy Chen, helped them during a similar incident. Members and supporters of the Bitget community thanked Zhou for his gesture, with Chen saying, “We are all in this together.”
Binance Offers Help
Co-founder and former Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao assured Bitget that Binance and the BNB Chain ecosystem will also do everything they can to help. Although he no longer holds an executive role at the company following a legal settlement with federal authorities in the US, he remains its largest shareholder and founder. This means he still has a vested interest in the institution.
Chen likewise thanked CZ, emphasizing that every second counts in monitoring and recovering the stolen assets. She expressed appreciation for Binance’s support.
Tether and Circle Join the Recovery Efforts
A related report from Coindesk reveals that the two largest stablecoin issuers, Tether and Circle, have blacklisted an address linked to the Bitget exploit. Their move led to the freezing of 218,023 USDT and 99,990 USDC, with a combined value of approximately $318,000.
The two started blocking the stablecoins linked to the hack only a few hours after Bitget confirmed the incident. The figures represent merely a minuscule portion of the compromised funds, yet many see it as an important step in the right direction.
Bitget’s Update on the Hacking Incident
For transparency, Bitget declared that the actual losses from the Lazarus Group-linked hacking incident were around $387.5 million, up from the $351.6 million reported earlier. The company’s CEO clarified that the numbers came from a more accurate tally after a more thorough investigation, not due to a continuation of the attack.
Chen assured users that the losses are still within the coverage of the Bitget User Protection Fund’s $464 million reserves. Additionally, she stated that users can verify this on the exchange’s on-chain addresses.
Moreover, Chen announced a Recovery Bounty Program. It comes with a 5% bounty for freezing the Bitget attacker’s funds and another 5% for recovering the platform’s stolen assets. The affected chains include Ethereum (ETH), XRP Ledger (XRP), Arbitrum (ARB), Avalanche (AVAX), Optimism (OP), BNB Smart Chain (BNB), and Base (BASE).
Bitget has scheduled phased user withdrawals starting on Monday. The schedule is as follows:
- 8:00 (UTC) on Monday for the Bitcoin (BTC) Network
- 8:00 (UTC) on Tuesday for Ethereum, BSC, Arbitrum, Base, and Optimism
- 8:00 (UTC) on Wednesday for USDT (under Ethereum, BSC, Solana, and Tron networks)
- 8:00 (UTC) on Friday for other tokens, Fiat, and other peer-to-peer (P2P) transfers
An Appeal to THORChain
On the other hand, Chen formally asked THORChain (RUNE), a decentralized exchange (DEX) focused on Bitcoin, to refuse service to the addresses linked to the Bitget hack. She argued that decentralization should never become a shield for illicit activity or lack of accountability. The CEO warned that the industry watches its response.
Chen’s request garnered mixed reactions from the crypto community. Many sided with her, echoing her reasoning. However, others pointed out that dictating how THORChain should operate defeats the very essence of being decentralized and permissionless.
Furthermore, critics noted that THORChain didn’t even freeze transactions on its network following a $10.7 million vault exploit earlier this year. Hence, they don’t see a reason to accommodate Bitget’s request, which runs counter to its protocol design.
As expected, THORChain rejected Chen’s request, citing its decentralized and permissionless nature, similar to Bitcoin, Ethereum, and BSC. Nonetheless, it said that it was “devastated to hear about the recent exploit.”
“THORChain is decentralized and permissionless like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and BNB Chain,” the THORChain team responded to Chen. “What responsibility should Bitcoin, Ethereum, and BNB Chain bear when handling known stolen funds?”
