The Sept. 24 Bitget hack, which saw $387.5 million in funds stolen, has intensified debate within decentralized finance over the tension between permissionlessness and intervention. Stolen assets quickly moved across various chains, with a portion routed through THORChain, the decentralized cross-chain swap platform.
Bitget Chief Executive Gracy Chen publicly appealed to THORChain to refuse service to addresses linked to the attacker. "The industry is watching," Chen said.
THORChain refused to block the funds. This aligns with the protocol's prior stance: when hackers funneled $1.2 billion through the platform after the Bybit hack, THORChain did not intervene.
The decision highlights a contradiction critics have noted. Validators halted the chain in May following an exploit that drained over $10 million from one of its vaults, demonstrating that the protocol can exercise control when deemed necessary. Yet THORChain did not apply that same intervention to stolen user funds.
NEAR Intents, a cross-chain competitor to THORChain, took the opposite approach. Its automated security layer, SHIELD, identified over $50 million in attempted flows connected to the Bitget incident and successfully stopped $503,000 during execution, though $166,000 ultimately passed through.
NEAR Protocol also waived its share of Bitget's recovery bounty. NEAR General Manager Alex Shevchenko said, "NEAR Protocol is permissionless: anyone can build on it, transact on it, and become a validator."
NEAR Intents has faced criticism for the intervention, with some arguing that blocking funds contradicts its permissionless claims and could expose the protocol to demands for broader control over its operations.
Crypto lawyer Yuriy Brisov offered a counter-argument: because SHIELD operates as an automated system, its actions could fall within legal protections typically afforded to decentralized protocols.
Bitget's Chen acknowledged the diversity of architectures and technical capabilities across protocols. She drew a distinction between providing permissionless infrastructure and actively "facilitating the movement of known stolen funds."
Chen expressed appreciation for NEAR Intents' response and said Bitget will pursue "the appropriate legal and recovery process for those assets." The exchange is working to understand "what is technically and governance-wise possible when stolen assets are identified" across the industry.
