FBI Calls on THORChain to Block Binance Hackers' Transactions

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has urged private organizations, including THORChain node operators, RPC node operators, exchanges, decentralized finance companies, and blockchain analytics firms, to block transactions linked to TraderTraitor hacker addresses. Over the past 24 hours, the RUNE token has depreciated by 17.7 percent. Simultaneously, short selling has increased: open interest has risen, and funding rates have decreased.

How the halt of THORChain thwarted hackers

On October 31, THORChain announced the suspension of trading on several blockchains. The reorganization of an Ethereum block, meaning the replacement of a recent block with a competing one, resulted in the protocol paying out 10 ETH that the vault had not received. As a precautionary measure, node operators halted all networks to allow developers to investigate. This inadvertently delayed North Korean hackers.

The FBI directly requested THORChain to block addresses related to the attack. Network co-founder Chad Barraford wrote that THORNode operators do not have information that is not publicly available in real-time, and subpoenas are unnecessary. Catherine Chan, head of business development and partnerships at Solv Protocol, disagreed with him.

Barraford's argument: BTC was provided by arbitrageurs, not THORChain; they obtained it from centralized exchanges that conducted identity verification, so it's an exchange issue. However, every BTC sent from THORChain is signed by TSS vault keys: nodes hold the keys, receive fees, and can vote to halt the network, essentially functioning as an exchange. According to reports, 85 percent of the funds, or $1.2 billion, stolen from Bybit were laundered in BTC through THORChain, and nodes, liquidity providers, and frontends collected $12 million in fees from this hack. THORChain will have to choose whether it is a protocol or an exchange.

What's happening with RUNE's price

The price broke through the $0.60 low set at the end of September, which had supported growth on the daily chart. The rapid break signaled a trend change, although the former supply zone at $0.50 acted as demand in the last hours of trading. The next move could be a decline to the long-term demand zone of $0.41–$0.50.