Bitget to Resume BTC, ETH, and XRP Withdrawals, With 10% Bounty Program

Bitget has annoucne to reopen crypto withdrawals after a $387.5 million security breach that forced the exchange to suspend the service. Bitcoin withdrawals will resume first on September 28, followed by Ethereum and USDT, while XRP and other assets are expected to return by October 2.

Alongside the withdrawal restart, Bitget has also launched a recovery bounty program, offering rewards totaling up to 10%.

Bitget Schedule Phased Withdrawal Resumption

Bitget will resume withdrawals in phases to manage liquidity and avoid sudden pressure on its network. The first phase will begin on September 28 at 08:00 UTC (1:30 PM IST), when Bitcoin withdrawals will reopen on the native Bitcoin network. 

On September 29, Ethereum withdrawals will resume across Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain, Arbitrum, Base and Optimism. USDT withdrawals will follow on September 30 across Ethereum, BSC, Solana and Tron. 

Finally, on October 2, withdrawals for other assets such as XRP, BNB and AVAX, along with fiat currencies and P2P settlements, will return to normal.

Why Withdrawals Paused but Deposits Continued

Bitget CEO Gracy Chen said the temporary withdrawal pause was a security measure and did not affect users’ account balances.

Bitget initially estimated the affected assets at $351.6 million. After further tracking, the exchange raised the figure to around $387.5 million, adding assets on Zcash and TRON that were missing from the first estimate.

The exchange said the security issue has been fixed and no further unauthorized transfers are possible. However, withdrawals were paused as an extra safety step while the platform completed its security review.

Deposits and other exchange services continued during the review because incoming deposits did not pose a threat to the platform’s core systems.

Bitget Launches Recovery Bounty Program With 10% Rewards

As withdrawals begin to resume, Bitget has also launched an Asset Recovery Bounty Program offering up to 10% in total rewards. The program offers 5% for helping freeze stolen funds and another 5% if those efforts lead to their recovery.

Circle and Tether have already frozen 218,023 USDT and 99,990 USDC, worth about $318,000 combined, from an address linked to the attacker.

However, more stolen assets remain under investigation. 

Data shows that attacker-linked wallets still hold more than 63,000 ETH, worth around $183 million, which cannot be frozen by stablecoin issuers. Even more than 102 million stolen XRP tokens, worth about $157.48 million, also remain in circulation.