Report: THORChain Declines Bitget Request to Freeze Addresses Tied to Exploit
CIE News ·
Cross-chain liquidity protocol THORChain has reportedly declined a request from cryptocurrency exchange Bitget to freeze addresses tied to an estimated $387.5 million exploit, according to reports surrounding the incident. The situation follows findings indicating that an attacker allegedly routed illicitly obtained capital through the cross-chain protocol in an effort to bridge the assets into Bitcoin. Despite reported appeals from the centralized trading platform urging validators to halt the movement of the compromised funds, the decentralized protocol reportedly continued processing the transfers without halting network operations. Maintainers of the protocol reportedly explained that THORChain cannot comply with the blacklisting request due to its decentralized, permissionless architecture. The network is built without unilateral censorship controls, centralized kill-switches, or administrative backdoors, meaning that neither core developers nor independent node operators possess the technical ability to freeze individual user balances or blacklist targeted wallet addresses. As a result, the exploiter reportedly utilized the protocol's native cross-chain mechanics to complete the swap into Bitcoin without facing intermediary intervention or centralized blacklisting constraints. The episode highlights the structural tensions that frequently emerge between centralized cryptocurrency exchanges and decentralized liquidity networks during high-profile security emergencies. While centralized entities like Bitget routinely implement administrative blacklists and coordinate asset freezes to mitigate losses, THORChain's operational rules emphasize censorship resistance and autonomous execution. Observers note that the bridged funds currently remain governed by the destination Bitcoin network as market participants and on-chain security investigators continue monitoring subsequent wallet activity.