Bitget Confirms $351.6M Hot Wallet Breach as Binance Sees Largest Bitcoin Outflow Since 2023

Bitget Hack Rattles Exchange Security

Cryptocurrency exchange Bitget confirmed on September 25 that a security breach affecting its hot and warm wallet infrastructure resulted in losses of approximately $351.6 million. The incident was first detected at 18:31 UTC on September 24, prompting the exchange's security team to activate emergency response procedures within minutes.

CEO Gracy Chen said the attacker compromised a critical backend system within Bitget's wallet infrastructure, using it to spoof transaction data and trigger the exchange's own authorization process to move funds out — ruling out a private key leak as the cause. More than $170 million of the stolen assets were reportedly swapped into ETH shortly after the breach, a pattern commonly used to consolidate funds into a more liquid token before further laundering attempts.

Bitget said its offline cold wallets remain fully secure and that customer account balances continue to reflect holdings accurately. Withdrawals were temporarily suspended as a precaution while the security team completes a full review, though Chen has not committed to a firm restart date, saying only that service could resume "within hours or days."

The exchange stated the loss falls within the coverage of its User Protection Fund, which holds more than $464 million, and drew a comparison to Bybit's 2025 hack, arguing Bitget is "certainly not another FTX" and can absorb the loss while continuing operations. Chen also said preliminary evidence, including VPN infrastructure patterns, points to a possible link to North Korean threat actors, though the exchange stressed that formal attribution will wait until the investigation concludes. Law enforcement and blockchain security firms have been engaged to trace the stolen funds.

Binance Records Largest Bitcoin Outflow Since 2023

Separately, on-chain data shows Binance experienced its largest single-day Bitcoin outflow since 2023, with more than 13,800 BTC leaving the exchange on September 25 as Bitcoin traded near $85,000. According to CryptoQuant analyst Darkfost, Binance's Bitcoin reserves fell from 705,000 BTC to 685,000 BTC over four days, a decline some analysts have linked to renewed retail buying interest pulling coins into self-custody or long-term holding wallets.

A sustained decline in exchange-held Bitcoin can reduce the amount of BTC immediately available for trading, although large outflows do not necessarily indicate coins have been permanently removed from circulation — they may simply reflect a shift toward cold storage or other custody solutions.

The withdrawal wave comes as U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF flows cooled somewhat, with $190.65 million in net inflows recorded on September 24 — the lowest daily figure in five days. That compares with a much stronger $998.95 million single-day inflow on September 21, which marked the largest daily inflow since October 2025.

What It Means for the Market

Together, the two developments highlight a market navigating both security risk and shifting investor behavior simultaneously. The Bitget breach — one of the largest exchange hacks of 2026 — is likely to renew scrutiny of centralized exchange custody practices, even as Bitget moves to reassure users through its protection fund and transparency commitments. Meanwhile, the drop in Binance's on-exchange Bitcoin reserves, paired with still-healthy (if cooling) ETF demand, suggests institutional and retail investors remain engaged with Bitcoin near the $85,000 level, even as headline risk from exchange security incidents persists.