CoinDesk
A wallet linked to the Bitget hacker swapped about 2,390 ETH, worth $6.3 million, for 75.2 BTC through THORChain on Monday. Transaction records identified 27 successful swaps, with all bitcoin payouts sent to one address. Four additional swaps involving 400 ETH were marked pending.
Bitget, which lost about $388 million in a September 24 breach, asked THORChain to refuse transactions from publicly identified attacker addresses. CEO Gracy Chen argued that decentralization should not shield services facilitating the movement of known stolen funds. The exchange has also offered a 5% bounty for eligible efforts to freeze or recover the assets.
Why it matters
THORChain enables swaps between blockchains without a centralized exchange account. That lets stolen ETH move into BTC without passing through a venue that could block the transfer, though the transactions remain publicly visible and can be tracked across networks.
THORChain rejected selective blacklisting, saying its emergency controls can halt swaps across the network or restrict activity on a particular chain, but cannot freeze one address or transaction. Those broader interventions would also disrupt other users.
Market impact
The exchange said it identified and fixed the vulnerability behind the breach, but has not publicly detailed how the attacker bypassed security controls protecting its wallets. The latest swaps show funds continuing to move despite Bitget’s public request, while two orders were only partly filled after failing to meet their minimum price conditions, returning about 114 ETH.
THORChain previously halted trading for roughly five weeks after a May exploit involving about $10.7 million from its own vaults. It said that emergency response protected the protocol and did not involve blacklisting the attacker’s addresses. The distinction underscores the limits of intervention in cross-chain systems: a network-wide pause is possible, but a targeted freeze is not.
Frequently asked questions
-
How much ETH did the Bitget-linked wallet convert through THORChain?
The wallet swapped about 2,390 ETH, worth $6.3 million, for 75.2 BTC in 27 successful swaps.
-
Why did Bitget ask THORChain to block the attacker’s addresses?
Bitget asked THORChain to refuse transactions from publicly identified addresses linked to its breach as it sought to freeze or recover stolen funds.
-
Why did THORChain reject a targeted freeze?
THORChain said its emergency controls can halt swaps across the network or restrict activity on a chain, but cannot freeze an individual address or transaction.
-
How can cross-chain swaps complicate efforts to stop stolen funds?
THORChain allows users to exchange assets across blockchains without a centralized exchange account, so stolen ETH can be swapped into BTC without passing through a venue that could block it.
-
What happened when some of the attacker’s swaps did not meet their minimum price?
Two orders were only partly filled after portions failed to meet their specified minimum price, returning about 114 ETH to the sending wallet.
WuBlockchain
WatcherGuru
TheBlock
CryptoSlate
CoinTelegraph
Crypto News