THORChain Rejects Bitget Request to Block Hacker’s $6.3 Million Swaps

THORChain rejects Bitget — The THORChain protocol has refused a request from crypto exchange Bitget to block addresses linked to a hacker, while the attacker swapped $6.3 million in stolen ether for bitcoin through its network this week.

A wallet associated with the perpetrator of Bitget’s September 24 hack, which resulted in losses of about $387.5 million, converted approximately 2,390 ETH for 75.2 BTC in 27 successful swaps via THORChain on Monday. The exchange had publicly urged the decentralized cross-chain liquidity protocol to block publicly identified attacker addresses.

THORChain’s governance body rejected the call for selective blacklisting, stating via its X account that its emergency controls are designed to halt broader network activity but cannot freeze an individual address or a single transaction. The protocol asserted its non-custodial nature prevents it from acting on such a request.

Bitget has offered a 5% bounty for freezing or recovering the stolen funds and continues to cooperate with international law enforcement. The public movement of the stolen assets through a major DeFi protocol highlights the ongoing challenges of asset recovery in decentralized ecosystems following major exchange breaches.