ThorChain Under Fire Over Stolen Funds, Ethereum's Hybrid Architecture Takes Shape

ThorChain (RUNE) has come under fire from Bitget CEO Gracy Chen after it refused to blacklist stolen funds. The request was made in response to a suspected North Korean hack of Bybit, where $1.5 billion was stolen and swapped on ThorChain. Chen argued that the action would undermine decentralization, but others have questioned this stance, pointing out that ThorChain has previously paused its chain after being hacked itself.

Cybersecurity expert Tay Vano criticized ThorChain's lack of transparency, stating that it 'abuses admin functionality to rug their users.' However, the protocol's ability to blacklist addresses is unclear, as it revealed in February 2025 that it had retired the admin key which would give it this power.

In related news, Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin has outlined his vision for a hybrid architecture combining blockchains with modern cryptography and decentralized off-chain components. He described this as 'an architecture that combines blockchains with cryptographic privacy and verification, and powerful decentralized off-chain components.'