On September 26, Bitget was hacked for $387.5 million. Three days later, CoinDesk reported a follow-up that made me pause and think for a long time.
Bitget asked THORChain (a decentralized cross-chain protocol) to help block hacker-related addresses and prevent asset transfers.
THORChain refused.
CoinDesk verified 27 successful swaps: the hacker used THORChain to exchange about 2,390 ETH for 75.2 BTC, worth over $6 million, and the funds have already been transferred.
The reason THORChain declined to assist was the protocol’s core design principles: permissionless and censorship-resistant. This isn’t about what THORChain did wrong—it’s simply the outcome of how it was designed to work. It doesn’t know you, it doesn’t know Bitget, and it doesn’t know the hacker. It just processes transactions.
That’s the whole issue.
"Censorship resistance" is one of DeFi’s core values—no one can arbitrarily be prevented from using a protocol, including governments, regulators, and centralized institutions. This feature protects ordinary users under authoritarian governments: people can make cross-border transfers without needing a bank account, and the protocol isn’t controlled by any single institution.
But in this same feature, the party being protected in this incident is the hacker.
This isn’t THORChain’s failure; it’s this system’s "neutral" nature producing a result that’s extremely difficult for victims when it faces real criminal activity.
I don’t have a clean answer. Decentralization is good, censorship resistance is good, but "being unable to stop crime" is one of the real costs of this system. Whether that cost is worth it is a judgment different people will make differently.
Now look: SOL is already up to $120, BTC is near $84,000, XRP is above $1.55, and ETH is holding around $2,700. The market is moving forward, and the impact of the Bitget hack has basically been absorbed.
But THORChain’s refusal to block the hacker will remain in the history of this industry, as one of the clearest examples of the "cost of decentralization."
What does the community think about this in the square? Did THORChain do the right thing or the wrong thing? Share your honest judgment.
$BTC
$ETH
Bitget asked THORChain (a decentralized cross-chain protocol) to help block hacker-related addresses and prevent asset transfers.
THORChain refused.
CoinDesk verified 27 successful swaps: the hacker used THORChain to exchange about 2,390 ETH for 75.2 BTC, worth over $6 million, and the funds have already been transferred.
The reason THORChain declined to assist was the protocol’s core design principles: permissionless and censorship-resistant. This isn’t about what THORChain did wrong—it’s simply the outcome of how it was designed to work. It doesn’t know you, it doesn’t know Bitget, and it doesn’t know the hacker. It just processes transactions.
That’s the whole issue.
"Censorship resistance" is one of DeFi’s core values—no one can arbitrarily be prevented from using a protocol, including governments, regulators, and centralized institutions. This feature protects ordinary users under authoritarian governments: people can make cross-border transfers without needing a bank account, and the protocol isn’t controlled by any single institution.
But in this same feature, the party being protected in this incident is the hacker.
This isn’t THORChain’s failure; it’s this system’s "neutral" nature producing a result that’s extremely difficult for victims when it faces real criminal activity.
I don’t have a clean answer. Decentralization is good, censorship resistance is good, but "being unable to stop crime" is one of the real costs of this system. Whether that cost is worth it is a judgment different people will make differently.
Now look: SOL is already up to $120, BTC is near $84,000, XRP is above $1.55, and ETH is holding around $2,700. The market is moving forward, and the impact of the Bitget hack has basically been absorbed.
But THORChain’s refusal to block the hacker will remain in the history of this industry, as one of the clearest examples of the "cost of decentralization."
What does the community think about this in the square? Did THORChain do the right thing or the wrong thing? Share your honest judgment.
$BTC
$ETH
