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The attacker behind the massive Bitget crypto theft has moved roughly $83 million in stolen XRP beyond the reach of Ripple’s freeze controls, in a brazen escalation of one of the largest exchange heists of the year. Roughly 54 million XRP flowed out of three initial holding wallets into accounts that cannot be frozen under the XRP Ledger’s current rules, meaning exchanges can only act if the funds land on their platforms.
What happened. The attacker consolidated and redistributed the stolen XRP from the original holding accounts, leaving about $75 million in XRP sitting in accounts immune to freezing under current ledger rules. Bitget revised its estimated total theft upward to $387.5–388 million from $352 million after identifying additional affected assets on the Zcash and TRON networks — the higher figure reflects more complete accounting, not new transfers. The stolen assets spanned Ethereum Virtual Machine networks, the XRP Ledger, Zcash and TRON. Withdrawals remain paused and are scheduled to resume September 28 through October 2; Bitget says its protection fund covers losses and it has launched a bounty program to freeze or recover the assets.
Why it matters. Fund-movement transparency is one of crypto’s structural advantages: everyone can watch the thief’s wallets in real time. But this case exposes its limits. When an asset’s freeze controls don’t cover the holding accounts, recovery depends entirely on exchanges spotting and intercepting tainted deposits — a game of whack-a-mole across hundreds of venues. It also sharpens the concentration-of-risk debate around centralized exchanges, and will likely feed regulatory pressure for stronger cross-chain laundering controls and clearer industry standards for handling tainted flows.
What to watch. Whether the September 28–October 2 withdrawal resumption happens on schedule; results of the bounty program; any attribution developments, including hints of a possible North Korean link; and whether any of the unfrozen $75 million touches a compliant exchange.
Related reading: Bitget Sets Sept 28–Oct 2 Dates to Resume Withdrawals After $387.5M Hack and Bitget Hack Hit $388M, CEO Hints at Possible North Korean Link
Sources: Traders Union | CoinTelegraph
Auto-posted by the Bull Lounge news desk.
Not financial advice.Do you think on-chain freeze controls should be extended to cover cases like this, or would that undermine the whole point of decentralized ledgers?
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