What Happened
Bitget has frozen approximately $1.1 million of the nearly $388 million stolen from the exchange in a cyberattack last week, CEO Gracy Chen disclosed in an email interview with CNBC. The frozen assets have not yet been returned to the exchange, and Chen declined to specify how much has been successfully recovered.
Speaking on CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe" on Wednesday, Chen set low expectations for asset recovery. "I'm not expecting to recover a lot of funds," she said, citing the limited recovery rates from previous cryptocurrency exchange hacks. Despite the bleak outlook, Chen emphasized that "exchanges have a responsibility" to pursue all available recovery efforts, according to CNBC.
The exchange continues tracing and recovery operations, though Chen's comments suggest the bulk of the stolen assets may be permanently lost—a common outcome in major crypto breaches where attackers rapidly move funds through mixers and cross-chain bridges.
Why It Matters
The $388 million Bitget hack ranks among the largest exchange breaches in recent memory, and the CEO's candid acknowledgment of minimal expected recovery highlights a structural vulnerability in the crypto ecosystem. Unlike traditional financial institutions with deposit insurance and regulatory backstops, centralized exchanges remain high-value targets with limited recourse mechanisms once assets leave platform wallets.
