Update (Sept. 25 at 4:30 am UTC): This article has been updated to add new comments from Bitget CEO Gracy Chen and preliminary analysis from onchain researcher Specter.
Bitget CEO Gracy Chen said North Korean hackers may be behind the exchange’s $351.6 million security breach on Thursday, citing preliminary findings linking IP addresses to VPN services used by a North Korean group.
Speaking during a live Q&A following the incident on X, Chen said security investigators had flagged similarities with previous North Korean attacks. She said the exchange did not believe the breach was an inside job.
“We’ve identified some IP addresses that match the VPN choices by a certain DPRK group,” Chen said, referring to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
North Korean hackers were linked to an estimated $2.02 billion in crypto theft in 2025, including the roughly $1.5 billion Bybit exchange hack, which the FBI attributed to…