Bitget raises hack tally to $387.5 million; its bitcoin fund covers that only while BTC is above $70,455

Bitget has raised its count of the assets taken in Thursday's hot-wallet breach to $387.5 million, up from the $351.6 million it first reported, according to an updated incident report covered by Cointelegraph. The exchange said the extra $35 million or so came from transfers on Zcash and TRON left out of the first estimate, and that it does not reflect any new theft. Withdrawals stay paused.

The revision also shrinks the share recovered so far. The roughly $318,000 in stablecoins that Circle and Tether froze, which we covered earlier Friday, is now about 0.08% of the total.

The fund is bitcoin, and that is the number to watch

Bitget has said the incident falls within its User Protection Fund, which is kept separate from customer reserves. According to Finance Magnates, the fund holds 5,500 bitcoin, which Bitget valued at more than $464 million. The exchange has a stated commitment to keep it above $300 million.

Because the fund is priced in bitcoin, its dollar value moves every minute. We ran the numbers at Coinbase's price of $84,085 at 6:53 p.m. ET Friday:

So the fund can cover the loss today with room to spare. But the cushion is a bitcoin price, not a dollar amount. In August the same fund ranged from $345.3 million to $441.5 million, Finance Magnates reported, citing Bitget's monthly report. At the bottom of that range it would have been smaller than this hack.

What is still not known

These figures are a ceiling on what the fund might have to pay. Frozen or recovered assets would reduce it, and Bitget has not said how much it has frozen in total. It has launched a bounty paying 5% of any assets people help freeze or recover. CEO Gracy Chen said the company also holds more than $1 billion of its own assets, but it has not said how any compensation would be split between those and the fund. A full payout would leave the fund well below its own $300 million floor, so it would have to be topped up.

For anyone with a balance on the exchange, the date that matters is close: Bitget said it would announce the status and timing of withdrawals by 04:00 UTC on September 26, which is midnight Friday in New York.

Our first report on the breach is here. Live prices are on our crypto prices page.

Sources: Cointelegraph, Finance Magnates, Coinbase Exchange. Calculations by The Company Chronicle. This is market information, not investment advice.