Bitget Hacker Transfers $83 Million in Stolen XRP
Written with artificial intelligence.
Following the $388 million breach at crypto exchange Bitget, approximately $83 million in stolen XRP has been moved out of three wallets, leaving about $75 million still accessible. Ripple, the issuer of XRP, cannot freeze the stolen tokens due to network limitations.
Overview of the Breach
The hacker responsible for the recent Bitget breach, which amounted to $388 million, has successfully transferred around $83 million in stolen XRP from three wallets. This leaves approximately $75 million remaining across the original five holding accounts, which are not subject to freezing under current network rules.
Details of the Transfers
Initially, 103 million XRP were stolen from Bitget on Thursday and distributed among five accounts. By Saturday at 12:41 UTC, two of these accounts had been almost completely emptied, with balances dropping to just 23 and 55 tokens. A third account now holds about 5.8 million XRP. Ripple's XRP Ledger does not allow the company to freeze XRP tokens, limiting recovery options.
Recovery Efforts
Efforts to recover the stolen funds depend heavily on whether exchanges will accept the stolen XRP. While exchanges can restrict accounts receiving these tokens, they cannot freeze them while in the hacker's control. Companies like Circle and Tether have already frozen around $320,000 in stablecoins linked to the breach.
Current Market Status
As of Saturday, XRP was trading at approximately $1.54, down about 4% over the previous 24 hours but up 9% over the week. The total value of the stolen XRP at the time of the breach was roughly $160 million, representing about 4% of XRP's daily trading volume.
Bitget has revised its estimate of the total theft to $387.5 million after accounting for additional assets taken during the breach. The exchange has assured customers that its protection fund will cover the losses and that customer balances remain unaffected. Withdrawals for Bitcoin, Ether, and USDT are set to resume on September 28, 29, and 30, respectively, with other tokens following on October 2.