Crypto Giants Circle and Tether Freeze Stablecoins in Bitget Hacker Wallet

Major stablecoin issuers Circle and Tether have moved to freeze assets associated with the recent $351.6 million Bitget cryptocurrency heist. While the blocked funds represent only a tiny fraction of the total stolen amount, the action highlights the centralized control stablecoin providers maintain over illicit transactions.

On-chain data indicates that Circle blacklisted the wallet, labeled “Bitget Exploiter 8” on Etherscan, at 05:00 UTC on Friday. The compromised address contains approximately 170.47 ETH alongside 218,023 USDT and 99,990 USDC. Blockchain security firm MistTrack subsequently confirmed that Tether has also banned the specific wallet address.

This intervention has effectively locked down roughly $318,000 in stablecoins. However, according to MistTrack’s monitoring tools, other exploiter addresses continue to hold over 63,000 ETH—a substantial portion of the stolen funds that cannot be frozen by any central authority.

Bitget CEO Gracy Chen explained that the attackers compromised a backend system within the exchange’s wallet infrastructure, spoofed transaction data, and triggered the authorization process to siphon funds. She confirmed that a private key compromise was not the cause of the breach. Additionally, Chen assured users that Bitget’s robust user protection fund, which holds over $464 million, fully covers the losses.

Circle’s swift response to the Bitget incident stands in contrast to its handling of the $285 million Drift hack in April. During that breach, an attacker transferred approximately $232 million in USDC from Solana to Ethereum utilizing Circle’s cross-chain transfer protocol. Critics, including blockchain investigator ZachXBT, argued that Circle acted too slowly in blacklisting addresses and freezing funds. Circle maintains that it freezes assets only when legally mandated to do so.

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