USDT withdrawals were scheduled to reopen Wednesday, and the protection fund shows $256 million against a target above $300 million. Wallets tied to the attack moved about 15% of the stolen ZEC into Zcash's shielded pool.
A week after losing about $388 million to hackers, Bitget is seeing customers return. The stolen funds are moving further out of reach.
Deposits at the exchange totaled $231 million over 24 hours, against an August daily average of $245 million, or about 94% of that pace. Futures trading volume reached $9.2 billion on Sept. 29, with open interest of $4.4 billion.
Withdrawals of USDT on the Ethereum, BSC, Solana and Tron networks were scheduled to resume at 08:00 UTC on Wednesday. Other tokens, fiat currency and peer-to-peer services are set to reopen on Oct. 2.
The protection fund
Bitget's protection fund page shows $256 million, including 3,067 bitcoin. Chief Executive Gracy Chen has said the company will refill the fund with its own capital to above $300 million within a week, which leaves at least $44 million still to add.
The laundering phase
Blockchain records show that wallets linked to the attacker moved 2,746 ZEC, worth about $3.9 million, into Zcash's shielded pool in three transfers between 08:15 and 08:46 UTC on Wednesday. That is about 15% of the Zcash taken in the hack.
The shielded pool is designed to hide transaction details, which makes the funds harder to trace once they enter it.
At the implied price of about $1,420 per token, the full ZEC haul of roughly 18,300 tokens would be worth about $26 million, or about 7% of the total loss.
Two directions
The recovery on the customer side and the movement on the hacker's side point in opposite directions. Deposits near normal levels are a second, independent sign that the rush to withdraw is fading. The shielding shows the attacker is converting stolen funds into forms that are harder to freeze, which lowers the chance of getting them back. So far, stablecoin issuers have frozen only a small fraction of the loss.
The move may also draw fresh attention from regulators, and from exchanges that accept privacy coins.
What to watch
Whether USDT withdrawals proceed without a new wave of outflows is the first test. Oct. 2 is the second, when the remaining assets and fiat reopen. The fund balance will show whether Bitget reaches its $300 million target on schedule, and further movements into the shielded pool will show how quickly the rest of the stolen ZEC is disappearing from view.