Circle and Tether Freeze Stablecoins in Wallet Linked to Bitget Hack

Circle and Tether have taken action to freeze a wallet associated with the recent Bitget breach, preventing the movement of roughly $318,000 in stablecoins.

Freeze Action Details

At 05:00 UTC on Friday, Circle blacklisted the address labeled “Bitget Exploiter 8” on Etherscan. The wallet contains approximately 170.47 ETH, 218,023 USDT and 99,990 USDC. Blockchain security firm MistTrack confirmed that Tether also banned the same address.

Scope of the Freeze

The freeze affects only the stablecoin portion of the stolen assets. MistTrack’s monitoring shows other exploiter addresses still hold more than 63,000 ETH, which cannot be frozen by any issuer.

Background on the Bitget Hack

Bitget’s CEO Gracy Chen said attackers compromised a backend system in the exchange’s wallet infrastructure, spoofed transaction data and triggered an authorization process to move funds. No private key breach was reported. Bitget’s user protection fund, valued at over $464 million, is intended to cover the loss.

Comparison with Prior Incidents

Circle’s response follows criticism of its slower action after the April Drift hack, where about $232 million in USDC moved across chains before a blacklist was applied. Circle states it freezes assets when legally required.