Bitget Hack of $351 Million: What to Check at Your Crypto Exchange Now

On the evening of Thursday, September 24, 2026, the crypto exchange Bitget said it detected unauthorised outflows from part of its wallets at 18:31 UTC and suspended withdrawals in response. The figure the company itself gives is around $351.6 million. For a European investor, the most important detail is not the size of the loss but the withdrawal freeze: anyone still holding a residual balance at Bitget cannot reach it right now. That hits a group already working against the clock. Since July 1, 2026, providers without MiCA authorisation have been barred from taking on new business in the European Economic Area. Bitget has exited the EEA market in stages and told existing customers to withdraw their balances. That single remaining route is now temporarily closed. What happened at Bitget: hot wallets, warm wallets and $351.6 million A hot wallet is an exchange wallet whose private key stays permanently connected to the internet. It has to be, because withdrawals are meant to settle in seconds. A cold wallet keeps the key offline instead, usually on separated hardware; it is slow, but out of reach for an attacker working over the network. Between the two sits the warm wallet, an in...