Bitget Hack: Circle and Tether Freeze $318k as Attackers Swap to ETH
USDC (USDC)
Editor:
Eugene Serbin
cryptocurrency.com.tr reports that Circle and Tether froze approximately $318,000 in stablecoins linked to the Bitget exchange hack on Friday, September 25. The breach is estimated at roughly $387.5 million, but attackers had already swapped most of the stolen assets into Ether and other non-freezable tokens. Circle restricted transfers from the address labeled “Bitget Exploiter 8” on Etherscan at 05:00 UTC, while Tether added the wallet to its USDT blacklist about seven hours later.
In total, the issuers froze 99,990 USDC and 218,023 USDT. However, neither firm can freeze Ether, meaning assets converted to ETH are beyond their control. The wallet still held nearly 170 ETH accessible to the attacker.
Blockchain trackers noted that other addresses controlled by the same hacker held over 63,000 ETH. This rapid conversion highlights the limits of asset freezes, which only work until funds are transferred. The incident underscores how quickly attackers can move value into assets issuers cannot touch.
How the market reacted
Whalio's own Binance spot order flow for USDC, measured when this story was written up on 26 September 2026. Not the outlet's figures.
USDC is trading at $1.00 with a 1-hour buy ratio of 50.9%, indicating a slight edge for buyers in the immediate term. This contrasts with the 4-hour buy ratio of 46.4% and the 24-hour ratio of 49.0%, suggesting that short-term buying pressure is building after a period of relative balance. The 1-hour volume delta is positive at $1,324,932, showing net inflows over the last hour. However, the 24-hour volume delta is negative at -$62,002,203, indicating that net selling has dominated the full day. Volume delta measures the difference between buy and sell volume, so a positive number means buyers are more aggressive than sellers. The current positive 1-hour delta suggests a recent shift toward buying activity.
The latest daily buy ratio of 50.2% sits at the 73rd percentile of the last 322 days, against a median of 48.4% - stronger buying than most days.
Was that an ordinary day?
The same Binance spot measurements for USDC, averaged over the days leading up to the story.
Over the preceding week, the average buy ratio was 50.2%, making today’s 24-hour ratio of 49.0% slightly below the weekly norm by 1.2 points. The 24-hour spot volume of $2,970,483,318 is 1.01 times the weekly average, indicating trading activity is near normal levels. The 8-day volume delta total was +$87,146,555, showing that buying has outweighed selling over the longer period. This suggests that despite today’s net selling, the broader weekly trend remains supportive. The current day is an ordinary one for trading volume but shows a slight deviation from the weekly buying average.