THORChain found itself at the center of criticism for its decentralized approach following a security incident involving Bitget. From September 24 to 26, the platform recorded a significant increase in trading activity and fees, reaching a swap volume of $1.72 billion compared to $610 million in August. Concurrently, fees on THORChain rose to $479,033.13 from $145,464.59. However, these figures do not reflect the whole picture. The increase in network activity occurred against the backdrop of a recent security incident at Bitget, where stolen funds were reportedly laundered through THORChain for exchanging and transferring assets between blockchains. Bitget CEO Gracy Chen criticized the platform, stating: “Our attackers' addresses are publicly listed and actively monitored. We formally request @THORChain to deny service to these addresses. Decentralization is a design principle, not a shield to facilitate operations with known stolen funds. The industry is watching.”
THORChain responded by pointing out the differences between an open blockchain protocol and a centralized exchange. Unlike centralized platforms, such as typical crypto trading venues that can maintain a blacklist, THORChain is a permissionless decentralized service. “What responsibility should Bitcoin, Ethereum, and BNB Chain bear for processing known stolen funds?” OKX founder Mingxing Xu (also known as Star Xu) defended THORChain, noting that it should not be directly compared to the underlying consensus of Bitcoin or Ethereum. “The Bitcoin network does not have a group of people sitting together deciding whether to sign a transaction,” he added. THORChain uses threshold signature schemes (TSS), and assets in its cross-chain infrastructure are controlled by a group of participating validators and nodes, meaning that a transaction requires a threshold number of participant signatures. He concluded his thought by saying: “Bitcoin cannot be stopped. THORChain can – it just chooses when to do so.”
Andy Lian, a business strategist from Asia, also noted: “Blaming @THORChain for not helping and being decentralized will not solve the problems.” Despite the criticism, THORChain's native token RUNE remains stable, trading at $0.7908, after a 15.8% increase over the past 24 hours. However, withdrawals remain suspended while Bitget investigates the incident and works with law enforcement and blockchain security firms.
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