Bitget Hacker Moves $19.48 Million in 52 Transactions Over Four Days... Money Laundering Observed to Begin

The attacker who hacked cryptocurrency exchange Bitget has started to move the stolen funds again. With $19.48 million moved in 52 transactions over the past four days, there are observations that the laundering of the $388 million in leaked funds may have begun. However, there is no confirmed evidence yet that the funds have flowed to exchanges or mixing services.

According to crypto media outlet Finbold on October 24 (local time), blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence stated that the hacker moved a total of $19.48 million from October 21 at 10:02 AM (UTC) to October 24 at 2:48 AM (UTC). Almost all funds were sent to new wallets that had never been used. Bitcoin (BTC) accounted for the majority at $19.33 million, with the remainder being Ethereum (ETH). The cumulative amount moved from attacker-linked wallets to new addresses since October 15 is approximately $78.01 million.

The scale of movement peaked at $23.31 million on October 15, then decreased, and stopped on October 19. This latest transfer is analyzed as a resumption of the halted fund movement. Arkham has not identified any exchanges, mixing services, or over-the-counter (OTC) desks that received the latest transfers. Since most destinations are untracked, whether money laundering has occurred has not been confirmed.

A significant amount of funds also remains in the hacker's wallets. Arkham estimated the balance of wallets classified as owned by the hacker to be approximately $242.54 million. Of this, Bitcoin accounts for 2,960.01 BTC, worth $241.99 million. Small balances also remain in Ethereum, Hypercore, Solana (SOL), and Tron (TRX). The tracked holdings represent approximately 69% of Arkham's estimated baseline stolen amount of $350 million, and about 63% of Bitget's revised estimate of $388 million.

The method of splitting funds into new addresses is assessed to make recovery efforts difficult. Such fragmented movements could also be a precursor to further transfers leading to cross-chain bridges, mixing services, or cash-out pathways. However, the attacker's next move remains unclear. It has been revealed again in this incident that it is difficult to recover stolen assets based solely on publicly available transaction history.

The attack occurred on September 24, resulting in approximately $387.5 million to $388 million being drained from Bitget's hot and warm wallets across multiple blockchains, including Ethereum and XRP Ledger. Bitget subsequently adjusted the estimated damage by additionally reflecting Zcash and Tron assets. The exchange stated that private keys remained secure and cold wallets were not affected. Losses were covered by the user protection fund, so customer balances were not impacted, and withdrawals were gradually resumed over the following weeks. Bitget continues to cooperate with investigative authorities, and this incident is considered one of the largest cryptocurrency exchange thefts this year.

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