NEAR Intents says it blocked $50M tied to Bitget hackers

NEAR Intents, a cross-chain protocol, has taken action to prevent stolen funds from being laundered, setting itself apart from THORChain, which maintains a no-censorship stance. The protocol blocked over $50 million in attempted transfers linked to the recent Bitget hack, where attackers stole $387.5 million on Thursday. A significant amount of these funds moved across chains to Ethereum, according to Alex Shevchenko, the general manager of NEAR Intents.

The SHIELD system detected and blocked more than $50 million in attempted transfers, with $503,000 frozen during execution. Around $166,000 in suspected stolen funds still passed through. This comes as THORChain faced pressure to block addresses linked to the attack, highlighting the challenges faced by permissionless crypto protocols in balancing openness with the need to curb illicit activity.

Shevchenko emphasized that while permissionless systems do not have to be neutral, refusing to help launder stolen assets is a crucial choice for them. NEAR Intents declined the $10% bounty offered by Bitget for freezing and recovering attacker funds, opting to return more funds to Bitget through a legal process. Circle and Tether recently blacklisted a wallet linked to the Bitget exploiter, freezing $318,013 of USDt (USDT) and USDC (USDC).

Bitget CEO Gracy Chen also urged THORChain to refuse service to addresses connected to the attack, but the protocol maintains it does not censor by design. NEAR Intents remains committed to actively fighting the laundering of hacked funds, arguing that crypto cannot simultaneously demand digital property rights while optimizing infrastructure for monetizing stolen assets.