Market Daily: Bitget withdrawal timetable, Harworth bid and Friday markets

The day ahead

Bitget’s estimate of assets transferred in its 24 September security incident has risen from about US$351.6 million to about US$387.5 million. The exchange says the difference comes from a fuller count of the original transfers, including Zcash and TRON assets, rather than a second attack. More useful to customers than the headline loss figure is its new withdrawal schedule: Bitcoin is targeted for 28 September, selected ether networks for 29 September, selected USDT networks for 30 September, and other assets and services for 2 October. Each stage is a target, not proof that a particular route is working.

The weekend also leaves a completed Friday session to explain. In London, the FTSE 100 edged higher while AIM ended the week lower, and Harworth’s board recommended an increased cash offer from Peel. US shares finished Friday higher, even as government-bond yields remained elevated. Oil responded to a conditional Iranian proposal concerning the Strait of Hormuz. Microsoft separately announced new Copilot capabilities with different release dates and pricing. These are distinct developments; none should be presented as a consequence of the Bitget incident.

The news cut-off for this edition remains 06:45:24 BST on Saturday 26 September 2026 (05:45:24 UTC). Friday figures below are labelled as Friday observations. The fixed cryptocurrency snapshot was observed separately at around 06:43 BST and retrieved at 06:45 BST. Live provider displays further down the page update independently.

UK Market Update

A modest Friday rise masks a weaker AIM week

Friday’s London closing report from Alliance News put the FTSE 100 at 10,695.25, up 0.1% on the day. The FTSE 250 rose 0.4% to 24,261.14 and the AIM All-Share rose 0.2% to 786.36. The distinction for small-company readers is the weekly picture: AIM was down 1.6% for the week despite Friday’s modest gain. These were 25 September closing levels, not Saturday quotes.

Harworth Group provided a specific company story beneath those indices. Original reporting from Alliance News says Peel Pepper increased its cash offer to 187p a share from 177.5p, and Harworth’s board changed its recommendation in favour of the offer. The proposed takeover is not yet a completed sale: agreed share purchases were due to settle on 29 September, and offer conditions and shareholder procedures still matter.

The practical point is to read the actual offer terms and timetable rather than treating a board recommendation as cash already received. Harworth shareholders have a different decision from a reader simply tracking the UK market; this account explains the transaction status and is not a recommendation to accept or reject it.

US Market Update

Friday’s completed session, not a Saturday quote

The Associated Press closing account recorded the S&P 500 at 7,743.41, up 0.5%, the Dow at 51,828.62, up 0.9%, and the Nasdaq Composite at 27,068.72, up 0.5% on Friday 25 September. These broad US indices recovered as oil prices eased; they did not trade in a new Saturday cash-equity session.

The stronger close does not erase the pressure from interest rates. Nasdaq’s 25 September market review describes a week in which firmer US business-activity data and more hawkish Federal Reserve commentary helped push yields higher, while the Nasdaq-100 still gained about 3% over the week. The Nasdaq-100 is a different index from the Nasdaq Composite quoted above; its weekly change must not be read as the Composite’s Friday return.

For readers, the connection is that a higher Treasury yield can make future company earnings less attractive in present-value terms, yet shares can still rise when investors see stronger activity or earnings prospects. Friday’s gains and the bond-market tension can both be true. One session does not establish a lasting trend.

Global Markets

A conditional proposal, not a reopened shipping route

Iran offered a route towards reopening the Strait of Hormuz within seven days if the United States met conditions including lifting its naval blockade and oil sanctions and observing a wider ceasefire, according to original Associated Press reporting. There was no agreement or confirmed reopening in the material available at this edition’s cut-off.

That distinction mattered to oil and to the wider inflation outlook. Alliance News’s Friday London close linked lower oil prices to hopes of progress, while also recording a late-session rise in bond yields. A proposal can change market expectations before it changes physical shipments. The next useful evidence is whether the conditions are accepted and whether tanker traffic actually changes, not the seven-day phrase alone.

European shares were mixed at the London close: Alliance News reported Paris’s CAC 40 slightly lower and Frankfurt’s DAX 40 up 0.6%. Those moves are Friday observations and should not be mistaken for live weekend prices.

Bonds, Currencies and Commodities

Friday’s rates and oil show why timing matters

The US Treasury’s daily par-yield table gives 5.17% for the ten-year and 5.49% for the 30-year on Friday 25 September. These are official daily par yields derived from market quotations around 3:30pm New York time. They differ from an earlier live quote because the observation times and methods differ; they are not contradictory Saturday prices. A yield is the annualised return implied by a bond’s price, and a rising yield generally means its price has fallen.

For oil, the Alliance News London close quoted Brent crude at US$106.21 a barrel at the time of the UK equity close, against US$107.25 late on Thursday. This is a timed London quote, not a final settlement or a live Saturday price. Sterling was quoted at US$1.3238 at that same Friday report, compared with US$1.3214 at the equivalent Thursday point.

The relationship is more useful than a jumble of unsynchronised numbers: hopes of easier oil supply can temper inflation fears, while strong economic data or changing rate expectations can still keep bond yields high. Friday’s numbers are context for the next session, not a real-time cross-market dashboard.

Crypto

Bitget’s larger estimate and the actual withdrawal stages

Bitget’s 25 September security update says about US$387.5 million of assets were transferred to attacker-controlled addresses, up from its earlier estimate of about US$351.6 million. It attributes the revision to a fuller classification of transfers from the same 24 September incident, including Zcash and TRON assets. Bitget says it found and remedied the vulnerability and is working with Mandiant and SlowMist. Those remain the affected company’s statements, not a published independent finding about the final loss or recovery.

The initial notice says the incident affected some hot and warm wallet layers, while cold wallets were unaffected. It also says account balances were unaffected, deposits and trading remained available, and its User Protection Fund, which it put above US$464 million, would cover losses. The 26 September schedule notice repeats that the fund covers the financial impact. These are important customer-facing commitments, but the fund balance, coverage and eventual outcome have not been independently verified here. A stated fund is different from confirmed reimbursement or the ability to withdraw now.

Bitget’s published withdrawal targets are 08:00 UTC / 09:00 BST on each date below. Users should check the current service status for their exact asset and network before acting:

1. 28 September: BTC on the Bitcoin network.
2. 29 September: ETH on Ethereum, BSC, Arbitrum, Base and Optimism.
3. 30 September: USDT on Ethereum, BSC, Solana and Tron.
4. 2 October: other tokens and networks, plus fiat withdrawals and peer-to-peer services.

An XRP holder, for example, should not infer a 28 September opening from the first stage. Dates are Bitget’s plan at the original news cut-off, not a guarantee of access or a statement that any transfer has completed. The exchange’s conditional 5% recovery bounty is a separate programme for eligible voluntary action directly causing a freeze or recovery; it does not give ordinary users an automatic claim and is not a substitute for the company’s customer-protection statements.

The fixed crypto-only snapshot

The following panel is a fixed, dated sample of selected cryptocurrency data. It is not a picture of every crypto asset or of wider financial markets, and it should not be treated as evidence of what caused any price movement.

AI, Technology and Investor Tools

Microsoft announces three Copilot modes with different launch dates

Microsoft’s 25 September announcement describes Home for moving between chat, delegated work and Office documents; Code for creating small apps, trackers and dashboards; and Autopilot for longer-running delegated tasks. These are product announcements, not evidence that all users can use every feature today. Microsoft says Home and Code start rolling out through its Frontier programme in the coming weeks, while Autopilot moves into private preview at the end of September.

There is a direct investor-tools question here. A dashboard built with AI may make it easier to compare filings or test a scenario, but the quality of the answer still depends on source data, dates, calculations and permissions. Microsoft also says advanced agentic work such as Cowork, Code and Autopilot will use usage-based billing. For a business adopting these tools, availability and running cost matter alongside a polished demonstration. The announcement does not establish productivity gains, trading performance or future Microsoft revenue.

The Bitget incident provides a separate practical example: use the exchange’s dated service notice to establish withdrawal status, not an undated AI summary or a wallet screenshot. An AI tool can organise evidence, but it cannot prove that a withdrawal route is enabled or that customer funds have been returned.

A practical withdrawal check

1. Open the provider’s official schedule and check the date for your asset and network.
2. Check withdrawal availability for the exact asset and blockchain network.
3. Confirm the receiving address, network and any required memo or destination tag from the destination’s own deposit screen.
4. Do not attempt a transfer while the relevant withdrawal route remains unavailable.
5. After service resumes, consider a small test transfer before moving a larger amount.
6. Keep the transaction identifier and support records without exposing wallet secrets.

Cristoniq’s first-transfer runbook explains address, network, fee and test-transfer checks for an ordinary direct transfer. It cannot remove exchange, blockchain or market risk, and users should not try to bypass a suspension through an incompatible network or unverified intermediary.

What to Watch Next

• 28 September, 08:00 UTC / 09:00 BST: Bitget targets BTC withdrawals on the Bitcoin network; its advertised customer question-and-answer session is scheduled for 07:30 UTC / 08:30 BST. Check actual status rather than relying on the target.
• 29 and 30 September, 08:00 UTC / 09:00 BST: Bitget targets the specified ETH and USDT networks respectively. Other tokens, including XRP, are not in those first three stages.
• 29 September: the Harworth/Peel announcement anticipates settlement of agreed share purchases. Check the subsequent company announcement before treating the offer as unconditional.
• 2 October, 08:00 UTC / 09:00 BST: Bitget targets other tokens and networks plus fiat and peer-to-peer services. The actual service status and any revised notice matter more than the timetable.
• Week commencing 28 September: compare new UK and US market observations with Friday’s dated close; monitor the proposed Hormuz terms and actual shipping access. Microsoft’s Autopilot private preview is expected towards the end of September, not a general release date.

Update, 26 September 2026: Added Bitget’s asset-by-asset withdrawal targets and attributed customer-protection statements, plus Friday market, company and technology developments available before the original news cut-off. Original publication time and fixed crypto observations are unchanged.

This briefing provides educational information, not personalised investment, trading, tax or legal advice.