Drift's stalled recovery backs Gracy Chen's doubt over Bitget's $388M

What happened

Bitget CEO Gracy Chen said she does not believe the $388 million stolen from her company will be recovered. More than six months after its exploit, Drift Protocol still cannot recover most of the stolen funds, which are being laundered through Tornado Cash.

Confirmed

Global impact / market context

When stolen crypto stays unrecovered and keeps moving through mixers, victims face permanent losses and exchanges must absorb the cost. That can reduce cash available for hiring, product launches, and capital spending, while making customers and investors more cautious about holding funds on centralized platforms.

Analyst inference

The stalled Drift recovery supports Chen's doubt and highlights a wider problem: once stolen coins enter a mixer, they are extremely hard to trace and freeze. This can push exchanges to spend more on security, insurance, and compliance, raising costs and possibly fees for users.

Analyst inference

What to watch

1. Watch whether Drift Protocol or Bitget announces any further recovery of the stolen $388 million, since Chen has already said she doubts it will be returned. Confirmed
2. Watch for any proposal from exchanges or regulators to restrict mixer use, which would mean new rules aimed at stopping stolen crypto from being laundered through services like Tornado Cash. Proposed
3. Watch whether Bitget changes its security spending, insurance, or customer protections, because unrecovered losses could push the exchange to raise costs or pass them to users. Analyst inference

Evidence

• cryptopolitan.com