Bitget Breach Tops $388M; KelpDAO Sues LayerZero Over $292M Exploit

Crypto exchange Bitget has revised its estimate of losses from Thursday's security breach to approximately $388 million, up from the initial $352 million figure, after identifying additional affected assets on the Zcash and TRON networks. The exchange confirmed that assets spanning Ethereum Virtual Machine networks, the XRP Ledger, Zcash, and TRON were transferred to attacker-controlled addresses, including XRP, Ether (ETH), Tether's USDt, Zcash (ZEC), USDC, USDT0, XAUt, BNB, AVAX, and TRX. Bitget CEO Gracy Chen said preliminary evidence points to possible North Korean involvement. Withdrawals remain paused as the exchange conducts its investigation and has launched a bounty program to help freeze or recover stolen funds. The incident ranks among the largest crypto security breaches on record, though it falls short of the roughly $1.5 billion stolen from Bybit in February 2025.

Meanwhile, restaking protocol KelpDAO has filed a lawsuit against cross-chain infrastructure provider LayerZero and its co-founder and CEO Bryan Pellegrino over the approximately $292 million exploit of its rsETH bridge earlier this year. KelpDAO alleges that LayerZero failed to disclose security risks in its technology and failed to prevent attackers from compromising its infrastructure, claims that escalated a months-long dispute over whether the loss stemmed from LayerZero's infrastructure, KelpDAO's bridge configuration, or both. The lawsuit also notes that LayerZero had reviewed and endorsed KelpDAO's deployment and configuration in writing prior to the exploit.

Pellegrino has called the claims "meritless" and stated he intends to defend the case in Vancouver. "Our number one priority has always been and will remain the security of our users' assets," KelpDAO wrote in a statement. "But we also need to correct the record, and hold LayerZero and Mr. Pellegrino accountable for the harm they have caused us and the broader DeFi ecosystem." The lawsuit marks a significant escalation in accountability efforts within the DeFi sector following one of the year's largest bridge exploits.