Circle and Tether Act to Freeze Wallet Linked to Bitget Hack

MarketsCircle and Tether Act to Freeze Wallet Linked to Bitget Hack

The stablecoin companies have blacklisted a wallet containing approximately $318,000 in USDT and USDC, while the majority of the stolen assets are in ether, which remains unfrozen.

By Oliver Knight| Edited by Stephen Alpher Sep 25, 2026, 10:41 a.m. EDT 1 min read

• Circle and Tether took immediate action to freeze a wallet belonging to the perpetrator of a recent hack on Bitget, which resulted in $351.6 million being stolen.
• This action only secures a fraction of the stolen assets, as other hacker wallets are still holding over 63,000 ETH, which cannot be frozen by any issuer.
• Circle's response was quicker this time compared to its handling of the Drift hack in April, where it faced criticism for allowing stolen USDC worth about $232 million to transfer across chains without intervention.

Circle and Tether have successfully frozen a wallet associated with the recent $351.6 million Bitget hack, although this amount represents only a small part of the total theft.

According to on-chain data, Circle blacklisted the wallet labeled "Bitget Exploiter 8" at 05:00 UTC on Friday. The wallet holds around 170.47 ETH, 218,023 USDT, and 99,990 USDC. Blockchain security firm MistTrack reported that Tether has also banned the wallet.

This leaves approximately $318,000 in stablecoins locked in the wallet. MistTrack's monitoring indicates that other exploiter wallets still possess over 63,000 ETH, which is beyond the reach of any issuer's freezing capabilities.

Gracy Chen, CEO of Bitget, explained that the attackers exploited a vulnerability in the exchange's wallet infrastructure, using spoofed transaction data to initiate unauthorized fund transfers, while confirming that there was no compromise of private keys. She assured that Bitget's user protection fund, which exceeds $464 million, would cover the losses incurred.

Circle's rapid action marks a departure from its response to the Drift hack, which involved a theft of $285 million. In that incident, the attacker was able to transfer around $232 million in USDC from Solana to Ethereum using Circle's cross-chain transfer protocol. Critics, including ZachXBT, argued that Circle could have acted more swiftly to blacklist wallets and halt the movement of funds. Circle maintains that it acts to freeze assets only when legally obligated to do so.

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