TLDR
A major Bitget exchange hack drained about $157 million in XRP, yet large holders have since added roughly $724 million, leaving XRPs price and sentiment surprisingly resilient.
- Bitgets hot-wallet breach stole around 102.9 million XRP worth about $157 million, and that XRP cannot be natively frozen on the XRP Ledger.
- In the five days around the hack, whale addresses added roughly 470 million XRP (about $724 million), alongside steady spot ETF inflows and a double?digit price gain.
- The key risks now are how and when the stolen XRP is cashed out, and whether whale and ETF demand stays strong enough to absorb both supply and headline risk.
Deep Dive
1. What Happened In The $157M Theft
On 24 September 2026, Bitget reported a backend wallet compromise affecting about $351.6 million in assets, with XRP the single largest slice at roughly $157.5 million (about 102.9 million XRP) according to multiple reports. Bitget said attackers spoofed transaction data from hot and warm wallets while cold wallets and private keys remained secure, and that its protection fund of over $464 million covers the loss for customers.
Onchain analysis shows more than 99% of the stolen XRP still sitting in a handful of fresh wallets, and the XRP Ledger has no built?in mechanism to freeze native XRP balances, meaning the main chokepoints are exchanges and bridges when the attacker eventually tries to cash out.
The hack is venue?specific rather than a protocol failure, but the stolen XRP represents a large overhang that could matter once liquidation starts.
2. Whale Accumulation And Price Impact
Despite the theft, XRP (XRP) has rallied, with reports citing a 16% gain over seven days to around the mid?$1.50s and a sharp jump in 24?hour volume. Large XRPL wallets holding 1 million to 10 million XRP accumulated about 470 million tokens worth roughly $724 million in just five days, based on Santiment data summarized by outlets such as Finbold and U.Today.
At the same time, US spot XRP ETFs logged several consecutive days of net inflows, totaling more than $50 million in a single week, reinforcing the picture of rising institutional demand. Technically, analysts note an inverse head?and?shoulders pattern and price trading above key moving averages near 1.401.45, suggesting a constructive trend as long as price holds above recent support.
Big wallets and ETFs are treating the hack as a buying opportunity, signaling confidence in XRPs longer?term role rather than panic selling.
3. Risks And What To Watch Next
The main open risk is the eventual disposal path for the stolen XRP: so far only a tiny fraction has moved through services like Bridgers, interpreted as test runs before larger cash?outs. A more aggressive sale or mixing phase could add volatility or temporarily weaken order books on venues where the attacker offloads.
On the positive side, continued whale and ETF inflows, plus any recovery or seizure of hacker funds, would help absorb that overhang. Market watchers are also following ongoing investigations that tentatively link the attack pattern to North Korea?associated clusters, which could influence how hard regulators and exchanges clamp down on suspicious flows.
If inflows and large?holder accumulation persist while cash?outs stay controlled or blocked, XRPs post?hack resilience could solidify; sudden large outflows from the hacker wallets would be an early stress signal.
Conclusion
A large centralized?exchange breach turned XRP into the biggest single victim, yet the market response has been unusually strong, with whales and ETFs stepping in as net buyers. The balance between that new demand and the eventual fate of the stolen XRP will determine whether this episode becomes a brief volatility shock or a proof?point of XRPs growing maturity as a globally traded asset.
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