TL;DR:
- Total Amount Stolen: Bitget raised its final loss estimate to $388 million following the cyberattack recorded last Thursday.
- Stalled Precedent: Drift Foundation confirmed this Wednesday, September 30, that the vast majority of the $295.4 million stolen on April 1, 2026, remains unrecovered.
- Low Retention Rate: Metrics cited by Bitget’s leadership show that Bybit managed to freeze only 3.5% ($80 million) of the $1.5 billion drained in February 2025.
Gracy Chen, CEO of Bitget, expressed skepticism regarding the realistic chances of recovering the stolen funds following the recent Bitget’s $388M loss. The lack of progress across protocols breached in earlier months reinforces a cautious outlook on digital asset recovery throughout the industry.
A report released on Wednesday, September 30, by the Drift Foundation revealed that the protocol has been unable to secure the restitution of the $295.4 million stolen on April 1. The entity reaffirmed its bug bounty program and blacklisting initiatives, though balances remain dispersed across onchain networks.
Drift Recovery Update
An update on the ~$295.4M taken from Drift users on 1 April, and where recovery efforts stand.
Drift Foundation will continue pursuing efforts to track, trace, and recover stolen funds. Recovered funds, whether they come back through a freeze, bounty, or…
— Drift Foundation (@DriftFDN) September 30, 2026
According to market disclosures, the Drift exploiter remained dormant throughout the spring before routing 23,095.1 ETH through the Tornado Cash mixer between July 23 and July 24. Independent onchain researcher ZachXBT stated that he halted his investigation into the incident due to a lack of institutional engagement.
Technical Obstacles and Bybit’s Historical Precedent
Bitget’s chief executive argued that historical outcomes from large-scale exploits justify her lack of optimism. In February 2025, Bybit suffered a theft of $1.5 billion in Ether, managing to freeze just $80 million after more than twelve months of coordinated efforts.
According to statements from Bybit CEO Ben Zhou, roughly 28% of the stolen capital entered untraceable channels by April 2025 after routing through cross-chain bridges and privacy protocols. Although Bybit secured a preliminary court injunction in the United States against entities linked to North Korea, actual asset clawbacks remain minimal.
In Bitget’s incident, the platform initially disclosed a $352 million breach before revising the total impact to $388 million. The exchange instituted a 5% bounty on any funds successfully recovered or frozen through external community assistance.
Immediate countermeasures have intercepted only a small fraction of the total haul. The NEAR Intents team blocked over $50 million in suspicious transactions and froze approximately $500,000 outright, while centralized stablecoin issuers Tether and Circle blacklisted a wallet holding $318,013 in stablecoins.
Onchain records indicate that addresses tied to the breach recently shifted nearly $3.9 million in ZEC into the Ironwood shielded pool on Zcash. Given these maneuvers toward privacy-enhancing tools, coordination with blockchain forensic firms will continue over the coming weeks to track potential deposits across centralized trading platforms.
