THORChain refuses to block hacker addresses at Bitget’s request, framing a network halt as an emergency security mechanism and not a selective freeze.
A wallet linked to the Bitget hacker converted about $6.3 million in ether to bitcoin through THORChain on Monday, approximately 2,390 ETH exchanged for about 75.2 BTC across 27 swaps marked successful, with four additional swaps involving 400 ETH marked pending.
Bitget lost about $388 million in a Sept. 24 breach, and the exchange has published attacker addresses and offered a 5% bounty.
Bitget lost about $388 million in a Sept. 24 breach. The exchange published attacker addresses and offered a 5% bounty for efforts to freeze or recover stolen funds. Lookonchain identified an Ethereum wallet as part of the attacker’s activity linked to that breach. Bitget CEO Gracy Chen publicly asked THORChain to refuse transactions from attacker addresses.
A wallet linked to the Bitget hacker converted about $6.3 million in ether to bitcoin through THORChain on Monday, with orders submitted between about 03:55 and 06:23 UTC. CoinDesk’s analysis identified 27 swaps marked successful, exchanging about 2,390 ETH for 75.2 BTC. Four additional swaps involving 400 ETH were marked pending. The successful and pending swaps together accounted for the movement of ether into bitcoin through THORChain during that period. THORChain enables cross-chain swaps without requiring users to open an account at a centralized exchange.
Bitget lost about $388 million in a Sept. 24 breach. The exchange published attacker addresses and offered a 5% bounty for efforts to freeze or recover stolen funds. Bitget CEO Gracy Chen publicly asked THORChain to refuse transactions from attacker addresses. “Our attacker addresses are publicly listed and actively tracked. We are formally asking @THORChain to refuse service to these addresses,” she wrote on X. “Decentralization is a design principle, not a shield for facilitating known stolen funds.”
“A THORChain network halt is an emergency security mechanism designed to protect the protocol,” the project wrote. “A halt is not a selective freeze of specific funds or an individual swap.” THORChain said it has controls to stop swaps across all connected blockchains or restrict activity involving a particular chain.
THORChain previously halted its network in May after an attacker stole about $10.7 million from one of its vaults. Trading on THORChain resumed on June 22. The project said it has controls to stop swaps across all connected blockchains or to restrict activity involving a particular chain.
Bitget published attacker addresses and offered a 5% bounty for efforts to freeze or recover stolen funds. The exchange lost about $388 million in a Sept. 24 breach. The publication of attacker addresses and the bounty offer followed that breach.
THORChain declined to block or refuse service to addresses that Bitget publicly identified and requested be blocked. This response came as a wallet linked to the attacker used THORChain to convert stolen ether into bitcoin through a series of cross-chain swaps, and THORChain characterized network halts as emergency security mechanisms rather than tools to selectively freeze specific funds while Bitget published attacker addresses and offered a bounty to assist recovery efforts.
