Circle and Tether Freeze $318K in Stablecoins After Bitget Hack

Bitget Hack — Stablecoin issuers Circle and Tether have frozen approximately $318,000 in assets linked to a recent hack of the Bitget exchange, though the attacker managed to convert the majority of stolen funds beforehand.

The companies blacklisted a wallet labeled “Bitget Exploiter 8,” locking about $318,000 worth of USDC and USDT. According to reports, the attacker had already swapped most of the stolen assets into Ethereum (ETH) before the freeze orders were executed, allowing those funds to slip away.

The incident highlights the reactive nature of asset freezes in decentralized finance, where speed is critical. While issuers can blacklist addresses on their centralized ledgers, once funds are moved to a non-custodial wallet or converted into a native cryptocurrency like ETH, they become much harder to trace and recover.

Bitget has not yet released a full statement on the total value stolen or the technical details of the exploit. The event underscores ongoing security challenges for centralized exchanges and the limitations of post-hoc intervention by stablecoin providers.