THORChain Refuses to Block Bitget Funds Despite Own Hack Experience

THORChain has declined to block funds associated with the recent hack of Bitget, a centralized crypto exchange that lost over $380 million on Thursday night. This decision comes despite THORChain's own experience with being hacked for approximately $10 million in May.

Bitget CEO Gracy Chen called the hack 'highly consistent with known patterns of North Korean hacker organizations' and appealed to THORChain to refuse service to the attacker addresses, which are publicly listed and actively tracked. However, THORChain cited its decentralized nature as a reason for not taking action.

THORChain compared itself to Bitcoin, Ethereum, and BNB Chain, asking if those networks would be expected to halt trading when stolen funds passed through them. In contrast, BNB Chain validators did halt the chain following a $600 million hack in 2022, preventing the attacker from extracting most of the loot.

THORChain's refusal has been widely seen as hypocritical given its previous swift action to halt trading after being hacked itself. The protocol processed a total of $678 million in the two days following the Bitget hack and generated almost $1.2 million in 'gross system income' over those same two days.