Bitget stated that its user protection fund holds 5,500 bitcoins, valued at approximately $464 million at the time, with wallet addresses publicly verifiable, specifically to address platform-level cybersecurity threats. Losses from the hot wallet incident, once verified, will be covered by this fund, which will be replenished later, with coverage conditions to be announced separately.

The official estimate of the theft is about $351.6 million, occurring around 18:31 UTC on September 24, affecting hot and warm wallets, while cold wallets were not impacted. Private keys were excluded; the method involved backend manipulation to inject forged transactions into the signing process. The largest single asset was approximately 102.93 million XRP, valued at about $157.5 million, followed by around 31,890 ETH worth approximately $85.8 million, and a total of about $75.5 million in USDT, USDC, and Tether. There were 19 transactions out of the hot and warm wallets.

After covering the $351.6 million loss with the $464 million fund, about one-quarter remains. The fund is valued in bitcoins, and the dollar value before compensation fluctuates with the coin price. The official website previously displayed about $387 million based on the daily zero-hour accounting price, which differs from the market price at the time of the statement. On-chain observations indicate that the 5,500 BTC are distributed across three addresses. Withdrawals remain suspended, while deposits and trading are still open, with law enforcement and on-chain security companies involved.

The protection fund transfers platform theft losses from user balances to reserve bitcoins. User account balances remain unchanged, with risks shifting to whether the fund will compensate as promised, the speed of replenishment, and what exclusions are in the coverage terms. Precedents like Bybit also used insurance or protection pools to fill hot wallet gaps, without changing the requirement for hot wallets to be online.

In market mechanics, the sale is "the balance remains, the fund will compensate," while the purchase is the time gained from suspending withdrawals. Demand is for users not to panic withdraw, and supply is the verifiable 5,500 BTC. Beneficiaries are clients who temporarily do not have to bear liquidation risks, while the burden falls on the fund, which must complete conversions and replenishments amid BTC volatility. Funds will flow from the protection address to reset the stolen assets or be recorded as liabilities for users, and then the gap of 5,500 BTC will be replenished from operational profits or new fundraising.

Source: Public Information