Bitget to Resume Withdrawals From Sept. 28 After $387.5 Million Asset Drain

Global cryptocurrency exchange Bitget will gradually resume withdrawals starting Sept. 28 after suspending the service following a security incident on Sept. 24.

Gracy Chen, Bitget’s chief executive officer, wrote on X on Sept. 25 that the company plans to restore withdrawals in stages after the security breach. Bitcoin (BTC) withdrawals will reopen at 5 p.m. Korea time on Sept. 28, followed by Ethereum (ETH) at 5 p.m. on Sept. 29.

Tether (USDT) withdrawals will resume at 5 p.m. on Sept. 30. Withdrawals for the remaining cryptocurrencies will be supported from 5 p.m. on Oct. 2.

The incident affected multiple blockchains and cryptocurrencies, Chen said. To reduce risk, Bitget is restoring withdrawals differently from the approach Bybit used last year in response to a similar incident.

Bitget halted all withdrawals on Sept. 24 after detecting abnormal asset movements in some hot wallets. The company said about $387.5 million of assets was drained. That compares with an initial disclosure of $351.6 million, but Bitget said the increase reflected the addition of some assets, including Zcash (ZEC) and Tron (TRX), rather than any new outflows after the incident.

The losses occurred across Ethereum and multiple Ethereum Virtual Machine networks, the XRP Ledger, Zcash and Tron. Assets drained included XRP, ETH, USDT, ZEC, USD Coin (USDC), BNB and Avalanche (AVAX).

Bitget said it has patched the vulnerability used in the attack and blocked any further possibility of abnormal asset transfers. Mandiant, Google’s cybersecurity unit, and blockchain security firm SlowMist are participating in the investigation.

Chen plans to hold an online ask-me-anything session starting at 4:30 p.m. Korea time on Sept. 28, 30 minutes before withdrawals resume, for at least two hours. She said the company would turn the crisis into an opportunity and show that users’ trust was justified.