Bitget ‘gradually back to usual’ as protection fund reaches $309M

The CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Bitget reported a gradual return to normal operations following a security breach that resulted in the loss of $388 million of user funds.

In a Wednesday X post, Bitget CEO Gracy Chen said withdrawals for all tokens would resume on Friday, and the exchange has already restored access to users’ Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), and USDt (USDT). As part of recovery efforts, Bitget’s ‘Protection Fund’ also reached $309 million.

The fund, initially set up by Bitget in January 2022 with 5,500 BTC, was intended to reimburse users’ potential losses that were “not a result of any misconduct from the user or the platform itself,” presumably including some security breaches. According to the company, funds were available “for instant deployment whenever the need arises.”

“The Protection Fund was created for moments like this and absorbed the financial impact of the incident,” said Chen. 

According to Chen, who spoke to Cointelegraph this week, Bitget still hadn’t ruled out certain parties who may have been responsible for the $388 million attack, including the possibility of an inside job or North Korean hackers. The company launched a bounty program in response to the incident, offering 5% of the frozen funds and 5% for any recovered funds.

On Wednesday, blockchain investigator ZachXBT reported that wallets tied to the Bitget hack moved about $3.8 million in Zcash (ZEC) into the network’s Ironwood pool. The transactions represented about 14% of the 18,917 ZEC stolen in the attack.

Related: NEAR Intents says it blocked $50M tied to Bitget hackers