Crypto Hacks Hit $766M as Bitget and Liquid Losses Mount
Crypto hacks caused $766.49 million in losses in September, according to PeckShield, up 462% from August’s $136.3 million and making it the worst month for crypto theft in 2026. Two incidents accounted for most of the damage: the Bitget breach, estimated at about $387 million, and the Liquid Network theft of roughly $320 million.
Bitget said attackers compromised a backend wallet-infrastructure system and manipulated transaction data without obtaining private keys or accessing cold wallets. The exchange plans to reimburse users through a protection fund worth more than $464 million. BGB traded near $1.98 on 1 October, down 2.62% over seven days.
The Liquid Network incident involved about 4,000 BTC withdrawn from a federation wallet. The attacker later said funds would be returned after network nodes were patched. Around $285 million was reportedly recovered, although earlier estimates put the unrecovered amount near $47 million.
SlowMist said North Korea-linked hackers were laundering stolen Bitget funds through Chainflip, converting the proceeds to BTC and using CoinJoin to obscure transaction paths. Chainflip has attempted to block related deposits.
Excluding Bitget and Liquid, 53 other crypto hacks caused about $59 million in losses, below August’s level. Total crypto theft in 2026 reached roughly $2.68 billion across 656 incidents, highlighting continuing exchange, wallet, bridge and smart-contract security risks. The incidents may weigh on trader confidence in the short term and increase demand for stronger custody and compliance controls.
Bearish
The immediate market impact is bearish, particularly for BGB. The Bitget breach and the reported 2.62% weekly decline in BGB indicate weaker confidence in the exchange and its token. Continued laundering activity could add selling pressure and raise concerns about frozen or restricted funds.
BTC may face short-term volatility if stolen assets are converted and sold, although the reported recovery of a large portion of the Liquid funds could limit the direct supply shock. ETH, XRP and BNB may experience temporary risk-off pressure because the breach affected wallets or transactions connected with multiple major networks, but the incidents do not directly undermine the underlying protocols.
Over the longer term, compensation from Bitget’s protection fund and the recovery of Liquid funds could reduce systemic damage. However, the scale of the September crypto hacks is likely to reinforce demand for secure custody, wallet monitoring and compliance controls. Historically, major exchange and bridge exploits tend to weaken sentiment before markets stabilise, so traders may remain cautious and demand higher risk premiums across affected tokens.