Bitget freezes XRP withdrawals as stolen tokens move toward THORChain

Bitget halts XRP withdrawals as stolen tokens move

Bitget disabled external XRP withdrawals on Sept. 26 at 12:11 UTC while deposits remained open, according to the exchange’s public status page. The freeze is part of a staged post‑breach recovery that will not include XRP until the final Oct. 2 phase at 08:00 UTC. Earlier phases re‑open BTC withdrawals on Sept. 28, ETH on Sept. 29 and USDT on Sept. 30. XRP is grouped with “other tokens,” fiat and peer‑to‑peer services for the Oct. 2 restart.

Stolen XRP flow tracked by Bitquery

Bitquery recorded 27.63 million XRP moving from two attacker accounts by 02:54 UTC on Sept. 26, while 75.35 million XRP stayed in six other tracked wallets. The total stolen amount is estimated at roughly 102.98 million XRP. The outgoing tokens are being routed through THORChain, a cross‑chain swap network, and are largely being swapped into Bitcoin. The analytics firm could not trace the final Bitcoin wallet owners, nor measure any spot‑exchange sales.

Hack impact and market snapshot

Bitget revised its total loss to $387.5 million, up from $351.6 million, after adding Zcash and TRON assets to the calculation. The breach, linked to North Korea, represents about 76 % of the exchange’s protection fund. XRP traded near $1.55 on Sept. 26, with no immediate price impact attributable to the hack. Trading and deposits continue on Bitget, but the closed withdrawal route means holders cannot move XRP off‑platform until Oct. 2.

Outlook

Traders will watch the Oct. 2 withdrawal status and any further movement of the stolen XRP. A resumption of withdrawals could ease market pressure, while continued cross‑chain conversion may keep a supply overhang in the background.

Source: CryptoSlate