Bitget CEO Gracy Chen said the crypto exchange’s recent $388 million exploit stemmed from a vulnerability in a third-party security product that allowed the attacker to obtain “high-level internal credentials.”
In comments to Cointelegraph, Chen said the attacker used those credentials to issue fraudulent withdrawal commands. Bitget’s private keys were not compromised, and its cold wallets were not affected, she said.
Bitget said it has since addressed the security flaw and tightened its withdrawal controls, including restricting internal access, adding independent verification for withdrawals and increasing monitoring for unusual activity.
The attack occurred on Sept. 24, when Bitget detected unauthorized transfers from several of its hot wallets and temporarily suspended withdrawals. The exchange initially estimated that about $352 million in assets had been affected.
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Bitget has yet to disclose recovery figures
The exchange has not disclosed how much of the stolen crypto has been recovered or frozen. Chen said some assets have been frozen with help from other industry participants, but Bitget would release a total only after verifying the amounts.
Bitget had previously called on THORChain, a protocol for swapping assets between blockchains, to refuse services to addresses linked to the attack.
The exchange said it is not asking THORChain to halt its network as it attempts to prevent the stolen assets from being moved. THORChain has said it cannot selectively blacklist individual addresses.
“We understand that THORChain operates as a decentralized protocol and has said that it cannot selectively blacklist individual addresses. We respect the technical constraints of different networks and are not asking any protocol to take actions that are not technically possible,” Chen said.
Chen also addressed Bitget’s earlier suspicion that North Korea may have been behind the attack.
“What was shared previously was based on preliminary indicators identified during the investigation,” Chen said.
“Those indicators are still being assessed. Mandiant and SlowMist are supporting the independent forensic investigation, and that work is ongoing. We will share further findings as they are verified,” she added.
Additional reporting by Helen Partz.
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