Unauthorized Transfer of $387.5 Million from Bitget Crypto Exchange
Hundreds of millions of dollars in assets were withdrawn from the Bitget exchange in an incident assessed to have been carried out by North Korean hackers.
North Korean hackers are believed to be behind the unauthorized transfers valued at $387.5 million from the global cryptocurrency exchange Bitget. The incident has been recorded as the largest cryptocurrency theft reported this year.
Unauthorized Transfers in Wallets
In a statement on Thursday, Bitget announced that unauthorized transfers had been detected from some of its hot and warm wallets. While online-connected hot wallets and warm wallets with more limited online access were affected, the company reported that cold wallets remained secure.
North Korean Connection and IP Findings
The company management stated that it detected IP addresses whose VPN usage matched the habits of a North Korean group. In line with these findings, CEO Gracy Chen stated that a North Korea connection is highly probable.
In a post on social media, Gracy Chen stated that they identified IP addresses matching the VPN preferences of a specific group and that this was most likely an attack carried out by North Korea.
Attack Method and Security Vulnerability
While the attackers failed to capture private keys, they breached an internal system and entered forged transaction data. Through this method, the hackers managed to make the transfers appear legitimate and transferred the assets out of the exchange.
User Assets and Fund Status
Bitget announced that the user protection fund is fully sufficient to cover this loss. Stating that customer account balances remain accurate, officials announced that withdrawals will be gradually restarted starting September 28.
According to a report prepared by TRM Labs, this incident was recorded as the largest cryptocurrency theft case reported during the year.