NEAR Intents, a prominent protocol enabling users to swap cryptocurrency assets seamlessly across different blockchains, has announced that it successfully blocked more than $50 million in attempted transfer activities tied to the recent high-profile security breach of cryptocurrency exchange Bitget.
The security incident unfolded on Thursday when malicious actors managed to steal a staggering $387.5 million from Bitget in an exploit that the exchange’s CEO later attributed to a third-party security vulnerability. According to Alex Shevchenko, the general manager of NEAR Intents, a significant portion of these illicitly obtained funds quickly began moving across various blockchain networks, eventually making their way toward Ethereum.
The rapid movement of stolen capital across disparate blockchain ecosystems has placed a harsh spotlight on the operational mechanics of decentralized finance. As exploiters attempt to launder massive sums of digital assets by hopping from one chain to another, protocols that facilitate cross-chain interoperability find themselves on the front lines of defense. In the case of NEAR Intents, the platform’s internal security architecture—known as the SHIELD system—proved instrumental in identifying and intercepting a substantial volume of suspicious transactions before the bad actors could successfully route them through other providers.
Shevchenko detailed that the SHIELD system flagged and blocked over $50 million in attempted transfers. During the execution phase, the protocol managed to actively freeze approximately $503,000 in funds, while an estimated $166,000 in suspected stolen assets unfortunately managed to pass through the system’s defenses.
The swift intervention by NEAR Intents stands out in a broader landscape where major cross-chain and decentralized protocols often grapple with conflicting philosophies regarding user autonomy, censorship resistance, and intervention. The news of NEAR Intents taking proactive defensive measures arrived precisely as THORChain, another decentralized liquidity network used for swapping assets across blockchains, faced mounting pressure and public calls to block wallet addresses linked to the attack. This contrasting situation has intensely underscored the delicate and difficult tension that permissionless crypto protocols continually face: how to maintain open, trustless access for global users while simultaneously seeking effective ways to curb illicit activity and prevent money laundering.
Weighing in on this ongoing industry debate, Shevchenko argued forcefully that permissionless systems do not inherently need to operate under a strict doctrine of absolute neutrality. He emphasized that the developers and architects who build these financial systems inevitably make conscious choices regarding what capabilities their protocols enable.
"The people who build these systems make choices about what those protocols enable. Refusing to help launder stolen assets is one of ours," Shevchenko said, articulating a firm stance against the passive facilitation of financial crimes in the decentralized space.
Expanding on his philosophy regarding digital asset ownership and market integrity, Shevchenko pointed out that foundational legal and economic principles must apply to the blockchain sphere if it ever hopes to achieve mainstream, long-term adoption. Property rights, he noted, are entirely fundamental to the operation of any healthy, functioning market.
"Property rights are fundamental to functioning markets. A financial system where stealing an asset gives you an unrestricted right to monetize it isn’t a freer system. It is simply a system that protects the thief. Such systems cannot become the economic backbone of the future," he added, warning that an infrastructure optimized for harboring stolen wealth will ultimately undermine its own legitimacy.
Demonstrating a commitment to returning the recovered funds to the impacted exchange, NEAR Intents announced that it will forego the standard financial incentives typically associated with such interventions. Specifically, the protocol will decline the 5% bounty traditionally offered by Bitget for freezing attacker funds, as well as an additional 5% reward offered for their successful recovery. By waiving these bounties, a larger total amount of funds can be safely returned to Bitget. Shevchenko clarified that the frozen funds will be handed back to the exchange through an appropriate and formal legal process once verification procedures are complete.
The proactive blocking of funds by NEAR Intents and other industry participants follows closely on the heels of similar emergency measures taken by major stablecoin issuers. On-chain data revealed that on Friday, both Circle and Tether blacklisted a specific wallet address directly linked to the Bitget exploiter. This swift blacklisting action effectively froze a combined total of $318,013 worth of USDt and USDC, preventing the attacker from utilizing these popular stablecoins to cash out or further obfuscate the stolen capital.
The unfolding crisis has also prompted direct communication from the leadership of the affected exchange. On Friday, Bitget CEO Gracy Chen publicly called on THORChain to refuse services to any wallet addresses connected to the security breach, urging the decentralized exchange protocol to take a stand against the movement of the stolen assets.
However, THORChain responded to these external pressures by pointing to its foundational design principles. The protocol stated that it does not engage in censorship by design. While THORChain acknowledged that it has temporarily halted its network operations in the past during severe emergencies, it clarified that such actions represent a broad, protocol-wide emergency security mechanism rather than a selective freeze targeting specific funds or individual user swaps. This fundamental divergence in operational policy highlights the starkly different approaches that various Web3 projects take when confronting malicious actors who leverage cross-chain technology.
Despite the challenges inherent in decentralized architectures, Shevchenko made it clear that NEAR Intents intends to maintain a firm posture against the laundering of hacked capital. He reiterated that the broader cryptocurrency industry cannot realistically advocate for the global recognition of digital property rights while simultaneously allowing the construction of infrastructure optimized for the monetization of stolen property.
As investigations into the massive $387.5 million Bitget hack continue to develop, the incident serves as a critical stress test for the cross-chain ecosystem, forcing developers, exchanges, and liquidity providers to re-evaluate their security protocols, their responsibilities in safeguarding user assets, and the true meaning of decentralization in the face of sophisticated financial crimes.
Leave a Reply