Bitget Expects Little Recovery From $388 Million Hack

Bitget is bracing for the likelihood that most of the money stolen in last week's $387.5 million hack is gone for good. The exchange's chief executive told CNBC the company is "not expecting to recover a lot" of the stolen funds.

So far, only a tiny fraction of the haul has been frozen. That is a common pattern after large crypto thefts. Attackers typically move assets quickly across wallets and chains, which makes it hard for exchanges, stablecoin issuers and law enforcement to intervene before the funds are dispersed or laundered.

On the customer side, the picture looks steadier. Bitget has restored much of its protection fund, the reserve that exchanges maintain to cover losses and reassure users after security incidents. Topping it back up signals that the company intends to absorb the damage itself rather than pass it on to account holders, though the source material does not detail how users will be compensated or on what timeline.

The incident ranks among the larger exchange breaches in recent years, and it lands at a sensitive time for the industry. Centralized platforms are under constant pressure to prove they can safeguard customer assets, and every high-profile theft revives questions about custody practices, internal controls and how quickly exchanges can respond.

For traders, the key issues now are whether withdrawals and trading remain stable, how transparent Bitget is about the attack's cause, and whether any further funds can be traced and frozen. The CEO's frank admission on recovery suggests the company is prioritizing credibility over optimism, preparing users for a loss that will likely be borne by the exchange rather than clawed back from the hackers.

Investigators and blockchain analysts will keep following the stolen assets on-chain. Even a small share of frozen funds would be a modest win, but the message from Bitget is clear: do not count on a big recovery.