Bitget CEO Gracy Chen told CNBC she was “not expecting to recover a lot of funds” stolen in the September 24, 2026 incident. As of Quartz’s October 2 report, about $1.1 million had been frozen, but Bitget had not disclosed how much—if any—had been returned. Frozen funds are not the same as recovered funds.
How much of the Bitget hack has been recovered?
The total returned to Bitget was not disclosed in Quartz’s October 2, 2026 report. The report said approximately $1.1 million had been frozen. Chen said frozen assets had not necessarily been returned to Bitget and declined to provide a recovered total. Her expectation that little would be recovered is an outlook, not a final accounting.
Bitget offers a 5% bounty for eligible voluntary assistance that directly leads to funds being frozen or recovered, subject to the program’s terms and exclusions. That bounty is an incident-response offer; it does not establish how much has been recovered. Bitget’s progress update describes the program.
Why did Bitget revise the loss estimate to $388 million?
Bitget’s current estimate is approximately $388 million, revised from its initial $351.6 million figure. The company says it reconciled transfers across 12 wallet addresses; the higher estimate reflects that accounting and not an additional theft. The unauthorized transfers began on September 24, 2026. Quartz’s October 2 report covered the revised figure, and Bitget’s incident explainer describes the reconciliation.
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What systems were affected?
Bitget says the incident affected portions of its hot and warm wallet infrastructure across 11 blockchains: Ethereum, XRP Ledger, Zcash, TRON, Arbitrum, Optimism, Base, BNB Smart Chain, Avalanche, Algorand, and Celestia. The company says cold wallets were unaffected, private-key compromise had been ruled out based on the investigation to date, and user account balances were not affected. It described a temporary pause in withdrawals as a security measure. These are Bitget’s statements, not independent guarantees about future security. Bitget’s incident explainer provides its account of the scope.
What investigators have said about the attack
Bitget described a vulnerability in a third-party security product, use of internal access credentials, and forged withdrawal commands that bypassed normal risk checks. The affected product vendors have not been identified in the sources cited here.
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Mandiant’s September 28, 2026 preliminary status report described unauthorized privileged access to third-party security appliances, a web shell and command-and-control connection, and lateral movement to a production wallet job server. Mandiant said its investigation was ongoing. Bitget later said independent reports from Mandiant and SlowMist were available by September 30. Mandiant’s preliminary report and Bitget’s incident explainer provide those accounts.
The attacker’s identity remains unconfirmed in the reporting cited here. Chen had earlier said preliminary technical indicators were consistent with known North Korean hacking groups, but Quartz reported that the Mandiant and SlowMist reports did not attribute the attack to a group. It would be inaccurate to state that North Korea carried it out. Quartz’s report discusses the attribution question.
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What Bitget’s Protection Fund and reserves figures do—and don’t—show
Quartz reported that Bitget’s Protection Fund was above $464 million before the incident, fell below $200 million afterward, and was later rebuilt to above $300 million. Chen said the company replenished it using company capital and would absorb the financial impact rather than pass it to users. These reported fund figures describe Bitget’s stated financial response; they do not show that the stolen assets were recovered.
Separately, Bitget’s September 30, 2026 Proof of Reserves announcement reported an overall reserve ratio of 131% across 19 covered assets, each above 100%, using a September 29 snapshot. Bitget says this measure compares assets with covered user balances and is separate from the Protection Fund. It is a company-published reserve figure, not a measure of funds returned after the hack. Bitget’s Proof of Reserves announcement gives the snapshot and ratio; Quartz reported the Protection Fund figures.
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What Bitget users should take from the announcement
Chen said exchanges have a responsibility to demonstrate how they protect users, particularly when something goes wrong. For this incident, the key distinction is between the amount stolen, the smaller amount reported frozen, and the undisclosed amount returned. The published reserve ratio and Protection Fund are separate measures and do not resolve the recovery total.
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