Bitget CEO Gracy Chen discusses the $388M hack, user trust, AI and the future of trading

• A $388 million loss in September’s Bitget hack has prompted pressing questions over the safety of user funds held on centralised exchanges.
• For BitGet CEO Gracy Chen, technology cuts both ways: it strengthens security systems and supports product development, but AI also broadens the range of threats.
• Growth in Real World Asset tokenisation points towards a future in which crypto and traditional finance come together, allowing trading without borders.

Approximately $8.65 billion to $8.98 billion has been lost to cryptocurrency security breaches in 2026 alone, according to CertiK. Among those losses were $388 million from the Bitget exchange hack in September and roughly $6.3 billion from last week’s Binance exploit.

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology develops, the Bitget attack has brought the safety of user funds on centralised cryptocurrency exchanges (CEXs) into sharper focus.

Against that backdrop, Bitget’s handling of the crisis was notable. Speaking exclusively to FXStreet, Bitget CEO Gracy Chen gives a detailed account of what happened and what her team learned. She also sets out her wider thinking on strengthening security, earning trust, AI and the changing trading landscape.

Bitget strengthens safeguards after the hack

Small unauthorised transfers marked the start of the Bitget hack, followed by larger withdrawals across multiple chains. Within minutes, the exchange’s security systems had identified the irregularities and halted withdrawals. An internal investigation found that the attackers had exploited a flaw in a third-party security product, triggering the exchange’s transaction authorisation process. Private keys and cold wallets remained uncompromised.

Describing the company’s response to FXStreet, Chen said: “We did our best, and within a few hours we made the decision to bear the loss as a company rather than have any of our users bear it,”

Since the breach, access to sensitive systems has been reorganised, with multiple layers of approval introduced for critical operations and monitoring tightened. Bitget has also comprehensively revised its approach to assessing and integrating third-party products, while imposing stricter limits on what external products can access within its network.

Transparency and communication remained priorities as the Bitget team worked round the clock to contain the incident and bring operations back online. Withdrawals resumed within three days. Chen noted that panic initially drove Bitcoin (BTC) outflows, but sentiment turned once Ethereum (ETH) withdrawals were restored, with inflows subsequently exceeding outflows.

Asked about the possibility of another security breach at Bitget, Chen stressed the need for ongoing improvements that keep pace with technological developments.

Chen acknowledged the limits of any assurance: “I want people to know that I cannot promise, and I don’t think any trading platform can promise that there will be no hacks,” She added: “But what we can promise is that if anything like this happens, we will communicate transparently, and we will put the interests of our users first.”

Technology strengthens defences while widening threats

In Chen’s view, technology serves two opposing purposes. Advances in system monitoring, AI-powered detection and multi-layer approval for critical operations help safeguard user funds. Yet those same advances can enable increasingly sophisticated attacks, including threats involving AI.

Research, signal detection, execution, risk monitoring and marketing programmes are among the areas where Bitget now uses AI. Chen nevertheless warned against depending too heavily on it, explaining that “AI at least today, is here to make good strategies work better, rather than just giving someone with no trading background a 100% guaranteed strategy.”

RWA tokenisation shapes the next phase of trading

Looking beyond the security breach, Chen outlined Bitget’s longer-term plans, beginning with the introduction of its Alliance profit-sharing programme. Through the scheme, the exchange shares about 30% of trading profits with users, as part of its work to restore trust following the incident.

Ultimately, Bitget aims to become a universal exchange that combines forex, equities and real-world assets (RWAs) on a single platform, using stablecoins as the base currency. Regulatory hurdles differ across jurisdictions, Chen acknowledged, but she said demand among users for traditional assets on cryptocurrency exchange platforms is increasing.

On the scale needed to succeed, Chen added: “You don’t need to be the biggest. As long as you have a good number of users who use your platform daily, it’s a profitable and sustainable business. You don’t have to outperform everyone to stay in the competition,”

Although RWA tokenisation has reached growth milestones, Chen said several elements must still fall into place before its next phase can take firm shape. Liquidity remains a challenge, particularly at weekends. Cryptocurrency exchanges also remain far from being able to give investors in tokenised assets the same rights available in traditional markets.

Explaining the industry’s efforts, Chen said: “This is something the industry is moving towards in order to resolve it, or to provide voting rights, or to allow our users to attend Annual General Meetings (AGMs), or the like,”

With the dividing lines between crypto and traditional finance becoming less distinct, the CEO envisages a future that could differ from today’s market. Investors are likely to place greater emphasis on platforms offering fair value, weekend trading and low fees, alongside a solution to the liquidity challenge.

Chen summed up her view: “I think the boundaries won’t really be clear in the future,”