THORChain Cashes In on Bitget Hack Fees as $761,725 Flows Through Crypto Infrastructure

According to independent on-chain researcher Andrey Sergeenkov, the $387.5 million stolen in Bitget's September breach generated at least $761,725 in identifiable fees for various crypto protocols and services. The largest portion of these fees, approximately $573,226, went to THORChain, representing 75.3% of the total. This figure is a result of cross-chain swaps, which create revenue for liquidity providers, interfaces, and routing services, even when the assets moving through them have been linked to a hack.

The affiliate payments associated with THORChain swaps also drew attention, with seven recipients collecting approximately $259,718 in fees and having further financial connections to wallets involved in the laundering routes. The largest recipient earned about $177,499, while another collected roughly $56,514.

The research highlights the need to distinguish automated fee collection from evidence of a service knowingly assisting an attacker. It also emphasizes the importance of combining affiliate data with subsequent fund movements to create meaningful leads for investigators.