NEAR Blocks $50M in Bitget-Linked Transfers, Sparks Permissionless Debate
The NEAR protocol has successfully blocked over $50 million in attempted transfers linked to the Bitget hack, as attackers tried to move stolen assets across chains. The cross-chain protocol's SHIELD risk-intelligence system detected more than $50 million in suspicious transactions before and during cross-chain swaps.
During execution, NEAR Intents froze about $503,000 in suspected stolen funds, while approximately $166,000 completed through the protocol. The frozen funds will remain restricted pending legal and asset-recovery procedures.
NEAR Intents has waived its recovery bounty offered by Bitget to ensure more recovered funds can ultimately return to the exchange. This move comes as other entities, such as Circle and Tether, have also frozen USDC and USDT linked to an attacker-controlled wallet.
The protocol's intervention in blocking transfers associated with known illicit flows has revived debate over what 'permissionless' means for cross-chain protocols. NEAR Intents defended its model by arguing that permissionlessness does not require every application or liquidity provider built on it to process every transaction.