Bitget CEO Blames North Korea for $352M Hack as Sequans Exits Bitcoin Treasury

Bitget CEO Gracy Chen has pointed to possible North Korean involvement in the exchange's $351.6 million security breach disclosed Thursday, citing preliminary findings that link the attacker's IP addresses to VPN services previously used by a Democratic People's Republic of Korea-linked hacking group. Speaking during a live Q&A on X, Chen said security investigators identified similarities with prior North Korean operations and confirmed the exchange does not believe the breach was an inside job. The attack targeted portions of Bitget's hot and warm wallet infrastructure, with withdrawals remaining suspended at the time of publication. Chen added that some stolen funds had already been recovered, though she did not specify an amount. The exchange is now coordinating with blockchain foundations and other partners on broader recovery efforts. North Korean hackers were linked to an estimated $2.02 billion in crypto theft in 2025, including the FBI-attributed $1.5 billion Bybit exchange hack, making the Bitget incident part of a worsening trend of state-sponsored crypto crime.

French semiconductor company Sequans Communications has sold its remaining 314 Bitcoin, completing a full exit from a corporate crypto treasury strategy that once held more than 3,200 BTC. The company announced Thursday that the sale follows the May redemption of its convertible debt and leaves Sequans with zero cryptocurrency holdings. CEO Georges Karam had launched the Bitcoin strategy in June 2025 after raising $384 million in equity and debt, describing Bitcoin as a "compelling long-term investment," but began unwinding the position less than six months later by selling 970 BTC to repay half the convertible debt. Sequans will now refocus on its core cellular IoT and software-defined radio businesses. The exit makes Sequans the latest in a growing roster of publicly traded companies reversing or scaling back digital asset treasury strategies in 2026, a trend VanEck digital assets research head Matthew Sigel has been tracking across at least nine firms.

In regulatory news, Europe's banking watchdog has pushed to bring crypto lending under the MiCA framework, seeking to close what industry participants have described as a significant gap in the bloc's digital asset oversight. The proposal would extend MiCA's existing rules covering crypto-asset service providers to explicitly cover lending products, potentially subjecting major exchanges and DeFi platforms operating in the EU to stricter capital and disclosure requirements. Crypto markets were modestly higher on the day, with Bitcoin trading near $84,191, Solana at $116.43, and Stellar (XLM) leading major altcoins with an 8% gain. Monero rose 2.4% amid renewed privacy-coin discussion, while BNB and Hyperliquid (HYPE) posted smaller advances, reflecting a cautious but constructive sentiment across digital assets.