Bitget breach losses mount as attacker moves $83 million in XRP beyond Ripple freeze controls

Traders Union
All News
Crypto
Bitget XRP breach details

Highlights

The Bitget attacker has moved about $83 million in stolen XRP out of three holding wallets, complicating recovery as Ripple's freeze tools do not apply to XRP.
Approximately 54 million XRP has left the original holding accounts, with the attacker dispersing funds while XRP trades at $1.54—down 4% in 24 hours but up 9% for the week.
Bitget raises its estimated total theft to $387.5 million after including Zcash and TRON, stating its protection fund covers losses and withdrawal resumption dates from Sept. 28 to Oct. 2.

XRP transfers complicate recovery efforts

As reported by CoinDesk, the hacker behind Bitget's breach has moved about $83 million in stolen XRP from three holding wallets, while roughly $75 million remains across the original accounts. Nearly 103 million XRP was taken on Thursday and split among five wallets, and by 12:41 UTC on Saturday two wallets that had held 20 million XRP each were almost emptied, while a third had fallen to about 5.8 million XRP.

XRP is the native currency of the XRP Ledger used by Ripple, but the network's issuer freeze tools do not apply to XRP itself. That means Ripple cannot block transactions from wallets controlled by the attacker, although exchanges that receive the tokens can restrict recipient accounts and stop further withdrawals.

Circle and Tether have separately frozen about $320,000 in USDC and USDT tied to the breach because those stablecoins include blacklist controls. Transfer activity also accelerates overnight, with the balance across the original five wallets dropping from about 70 million XRP at 04:32 UTC on Saturday to 49 million roughly eight hours later.

Market exposure and Bitget's response

Blockchain records show some transfers follow routes already used by the first wallet, including one case in which a failed payment of about 521,000 XRP is repeated by a second wallet about an hour later. About 54 million XRP has now left the original holding accounts, indicating the attacker is dispersing funds further even though the records do not show how much has already been sold.

XRP trades around $1.54 on Saturday, down about 4% over 24 hours but still up about 9% over the week, according to CoinGecko. At that price, the original XRP stolen from Bitget is worth roughly $160 million, equivalent to about 4% of the token's reported $4.4 billion in daily trading volume, suggesting any sale impact depends on available buy orders at the time.

Bitget raises its estimate of the total theft to $387.5 million on Friday after adding Zcash and TRON transfers missed in its initial count. The exchange says its protection fund covers the losses and customer balances remain unaffected, with bitcoin withdrawals set to resume on Sept. 28, ether on Sept. 29, USDT on Sept. 30 and other tokens on Oct. 2.

In our earlier coverage of DTCC’s post-trade infrastructure initiatives, we explained how the firm is working with market participants to modernize clearing and settlement systems amid the growth of digital assets and shifting trading patterns. We noted that DTCC’s priorities include tokenization infrastructure to connect traditional and digital markets, broader central clearing and faster settlement to reduce risk and improve capital efficiency, and preparations for longer trading windows such as 24x5 equities trading.

This material may contain third-party opinions, none of the data and information on this webpage constitutes investment advice according to our Disclaimer. While we adhere to strict Editorial Integrity, this post may contain references to products from our partners.