Bitget CEO Gracy Chen said she is "not very optimistic" about recovering the $388 million in crypto lost in last Thursday's security breach, citing the slow freeze-and-recovery record that followed Bybit's $1.5 billion hack in February 2025.

Speaking on Cointelegraph's Chain Reaction program released Tuesday, Chen pointed to the Bybit incident as a "good reference point" for what Bitget can realistically expect. Bybit froze and recovered a combined $80 million of the roughly $1.5 billion in Ether stolen from its wallets.

"I'm actually not very optimistic because after a year or so of Bybit's hack, they've only [been able to freeze] about 3.5% of the total stolen funds," Chen said. "That's only the freezing. It's not about recovery yet."

How big is the loss?

Bitget initially reported $352 million in lost digital assets and suspended withdrawals. Chen later updated the incident report to reflect a "more complete accounting of transfers," putting the figure at about $388 million. The breach ranks among the largest crypto industry incidents of 2026, following a $320 million exploit of the Liquid Network in September.

Historical comparisons underscore the scale: the Ronin Bridge hack drained $615 million in 2022, and the Poly Network attack took $611 million in 2021.

Who may be behind the attack?

Chen addressed attribution directly. Immediately after the attack, she said North Korea may have been responsible, based on "IP addresses that match the VPN choices by a certain [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] group." But Bitget has not "totally ruled out" an inside job.

"This is a very complicated matter that we need to do a lot of investigation and quite thoroughly investigation," Chen said. "It's more based on our preliminary results of the investigation, we have ruled out that possibility."

What is being done to recover funds?

Bitget has launched a bounty program offering 5% of any frozen funds and 5% of recovered assets to parties that help trace the stolen crypto. Several companies have already engaged.

The team behind NEAR Intents reported Monday that it blocked more than $50 million in assets tied to the attack and froze about $500,000. Chen also confirmed that stablecoin issuers Tether and Circle blacklisted a wallet linked to the exploit, freezing $318,013 in USDt and USDC.

When will withdrawals resume?

Bitget began resuming withdrawals in stages this week. Bitcoin transactions reopened Monday, and Ether withdrawals resumed Tuesday. The staged restart signals the exchange is rebuilding operational confidence while its investigation continues.

The recovery effort now hinges on how much of the $388 million counterparties and issuers can freeze in the coming weeks — a window in which, if Bybit's precedent holds, only a small fraction of the funds is likely to be secured.