Bitget Points Finger at North Korea Over $352 Million Hack

Crypto platform Bitget says it suspects North Korea is responsible for a hack that drained roughly $352 million from its systems, placing the incident among the larger digital asset thefts on record.

The exchange has not offered a final attribution, and the language it used was cautious. Bitget described North Korea as a suspect rather than a confirmed culprit, which is typical at this stage of an investigation. Attribution in crypto theft cases usually relies on blockchain forensics, laundering patterns and overlap with infrastructure used in earlier attacks, and it often takes outside security firms and law enforcement weeks to reach a firm conclusion.

North Korea has long been the prime suspect in the biggest crypto break-ins. Hacking groups tied to the Pyongyang government, commonly grouped under the Lazarus label, have been blamed by U.S. authorities and blockchain analytics firms for billions of dollars in stolen digital assets over the past several years. Investigators say the proceeds help fund the country's weapons programs while it remains under heavy international sanctions.

The playbook is by now familiar. Attackers target exchanges, bridges and custodians, often through social engineering of staff or compromised signing keys rather than flaws in the underlying blockchains. Once funds are out, they are typically split across many wallets, swapped into harder-to-freeze assets and pushed through mixers and cross-chain bridges to blur the trail.

For Bitget, the immediate questions are how much of the stolen money can be traced or frozen, and whether customers will be made whole. Exchanges hit by large thefts have often said they would cover losses from their own reserves, though the ability to do so depends on balance sheet strength. Users will also want to know how the breach happened and what security changes follow.

The episode is another reminder that custody and key management remain the weak points of the industry, even as trading venues market themselves on proof of reserves and stronger controls. A $352 million loss is large enough to draw attention from regulators and to renew pressure on exchanges to harden internal systems and publish clearer incident reports.

Further details, including any confirmation from independent investigators or law enforcement, are expected as the inquiry continues.