North Korean Hackers “Very Likely” Drained $350 Million From Bitget, CEO Says
Bitget CEO Gracy Chen stated North Korea was “very probably” behind the $350 million Bitget hack. The attackers breached a backend system and by no means obtained personal keys, she added.
Withdrawals stay suspended after the September 24 breach. DefiLlama information now ranks it as the biggest crypto hack of 2026.
Chen Follows a VPN Trail to North Korea
Chen addressed the hack throughout a reside Q&A on X after the incident. She pointed to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).
“But we’ve recognized some IP addresses that match the VPN selections by a sure DPRK group. So we expect that is very more likely to be attacked by North Korean,” she said.
Chen didn’t title the group. However, on-chain analyst Specter stated the stolen XRP (XRP) was bridged and hyperlinks on to AFX Trade exploit funds.
AFX misplaced about $24 million in July. Specter famous that the assault had been attributed to TraderTraitor, a Lazarus-linked unit. LayerZero tied the KelpDAO bridge exploit to the identical unit in April.
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How the Bitget Hack Bypassed Private Keys
Chen stated the hackers by no means obtained personal keys for Bitget’s scorching, heat, or chilly wallets. They additionally didn’t faux person withdrawal requests. Her later put up described the tactic in additional element.
“The attacker compromised a essential backend system inside our pockets infrastructure, used it to spoof transaction information, and triggered our authorization course of to maneuver funds out,” she explained.
She stated losses are contained, and no additional unauthorized transfers can happen. Lookonchain’s breakdown exhibits the attackers took 9 totally different property.
XRP made up the biggest share, with about 102.9 million tokens price roughly $157.5 million. Bitget’s confirmed loss is about double the roughly $176 million seen in initial on-chain reports.
The change says its User Protection Fund, now above $464 million, covers the complete loss.
The Biggest Crypto Heist of 2026 Lands at Bitget
DefiLlama information ranks the Bitget theft as the biggest crypto hack of 2026 to date. It edges out Liquid Network’s $320 million incident in September and the $295 million Drift breach in April.
The tracker logs about $2.2 billion misplaced throughout 281 incidents this 12 months. Bitget alone accounts for roughly 16% of that whole. The incident additionally makes September the most expensive month of 2026 to date, ahead of April’s roughly $648 million.
North Korean teams drove most of 2026’s early losses. TRM Labs discovered they accounted for 76% of crypto hack losses by means of April, mostly via the Drift and Kelp attacks. In 2025, Lazarus carried out the $1.5 billion Bybit hack, the year’s largest.
Chen has promised a full technical report as soon as investigators verify how the intrusion occurred. That report ought to present whether or not forensic proof backs the North Korea attribution.
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