Major Exchange resumes BTC withdrawals after incident

TLDR

Bitget has resumed Bitcoin (BTC) withdrawals after a large security breach, but full recovery of stolen funds looks unlikely.

1. Bitget paused withdrawals after attackers stole around 387 to 388 million dollars from hot and warm wallets, then restarted BTC withdrawals in phases while saying user account balances are intact.
2. In the first hour after reopening, users withdrew about 3,326 BTC, signaling trust concerns even as trading and deposits continued and broader Bitcoin price action stayed relatively stable.
3. The key things to monitor are Bitgets rollout of withdrawals for other assets, the concrete security upgrades it implements, and how much of the stolen funds investigators and partners can actually freeze or recover.

Deep Dive

1. Incident Scale And Status

Reports indicate Bitget suffered a security breach on 24 September 2026 that allowed attackers to drain approximately 387.5 to 388 million dollars in crypto from its hot and warm wallets, while cold wallets remained unaffected. The compromised assets reportedly included BTC, ETH, XRP, USDT, USDC, ZEC, AVAX, BNB, TRX and others, and Bitget suspended withdrawals as a precaution while keeping deposits and trading online.

Bitget has now resumed BTC withdrawals in a phased rollout, starting with Bitcoin first and planning to enable other assets later in the week, according to multiple reports such as this coverage of reopened BTC withdrawals and early outflows. The exchange states that customer account balances remain unchanged and that its protection fund will absorb losses, while forensic work continues with firms like Mandiant and SlowMist and with on-chain recovery partners.

2. User Behavior And Market Impact

When Bitget reopened BTC withdrawals, users withdrew about 3,326 BTC in the first hour, as reported by CryptoBriefing. That size suggests a significant portion of users chose to reduce exposure to the exchange as soon as withdrawals were available.

At the same time, trading and deposits reportedly continued during the pause, and broader BTC price action remained relatively stable, with some prediction markets still pricing high odds that BTC would hold above key short term levels. This pattern fits past incidents where exchange specific shocks cause venue rotation and custody reshuffling more than immediate systemic BTC selloffs.

3. Recovery Prospects And What To Watch

Bitgets CEO has said she is not very optimistic about fully recovering the roughly 388 million dollars in stolen assets, citing past hacks where only a small fraction of funds were frozen or reclaimed. Even so, partners have had some success; for example, NEAR Intents SHIELD system blocked over 50 million dollars of attempted cross chain transfers and froze about 503,000 dollars, while Tether and Circle reportedly froze around 318,000 dollars in USDT and USDC tied to the attack, as described in this detailed incident recap.

Going forward, important signals include whether Bitget meets its timelines to restore withdrawals for ETH, stablecoins and other tokens, what specific security architecture changes it publishes, and how transparent it is about compensation and post mortem findings. Industry wide, other exchanges often respond to incidents like this with additional audits and proof of reserves style communications.

Conclusion

Bitgets resumption of BTC withdrawals shows the exchange is moving back toward normal operations, yet the underlying breach remains one of the largest exchange hacks of 2026 and full recovery of stolen assets appears unlikely. For crypto users, the main takeaway is that venue risk can surface suddenly even on major platforms, so monitoring how quickly and transparently an exchange responds, upgrades security and restores services is as important as watching BTCs price itself.