THORChain declined to block addresses associated with the Bitget attack after the exchange was hacked for $387.7 million on September 24. Of the stolen $387.5 million, funds were quickly moved across networks, with some routed through the protocol’s cross-chain swaps. Bitget CEO Gracy Chen publicly called for the rejection of requests from addresses linked to the attack, but the platform refused, sparking debate about the acceptable limits of permissionless infrastructure.

NEAR Intents blocked $503K, $166K went through

Rival cross-chain service NEAR Intents took the opposite approach: its automated security layer SHIELD identified over $50 million in attempted transfers related to the Bitget incident, stopping $503,000 during execution, while $166,000 was processed. NEAR Intents also declined its share of the bounty for asset recovery. NEAR representatives note that the protocol remains permissionless, but applications built on it are not required to process every request.

THORChain previously paused its network after theft of over $10M

Critics point out that in May, THORChain validators voted to halt the network after an exploit that led to the withdrawal of more than $10 million from one of its vaults. In a post-mortem, the team noted that activity is automatically paused when built-in checks detect an insolvency event.

Permissionless debate: positions and legal perspective

THORChain developer Boone Wheeler argues that a truly permissionless protocol "can do nothing" about knowingly stolen assets and should not selectively block flows. Previously, THORChain also processed funds linked to the $1.2 billion Bybit hack. Meanwhile, crypto lawyer Yuriy Brisov believes that automated blocking mechanisms like SHIELD can maintain the status and protection of decentralized protocols. According to Gracy Chen, the absence of barriers at the infrastructure level does not preclude mechanisms for detecting and responding to known illicit flows, and Bitget intends to explore possible options both technically and in terms of governance.