NEAR Intents announced it blocked more than $50 million in attempted cryptocurrency transfers connected to the recent Bitget security breach. The attack, which occurred on Thursday, resulted in the theft of $387.5 million from the exchange, with a significant portion of the stolen assets moving across chains to Ethereum. Alex Shevchenko, general manager of NEAR Intents, stated that the protocol’s SHIELD system detected and prevented these transfers, subsequently freezing $503,000 in funds during execution while approximately $166,000 in suspected stolen assets passed through.
In response to the incident, Circle and Tether blacklisted a wallet linked to the exploiter on Friday, freezing $318,013 in USDT and USDC. Bitget CEO Gracy Chen called on THORChain to refuse services to addresses associated with the attack, but THORChain responded that it does not censor by design, noting that its emergency security mechanisms halt the network broadly rather than selectively freezing specific funds. Shevchenko emphasized that permissionless systems do not have to be neutral regarding illicit activity, arguing that refusing to help launder stolen assets is a necessary choice for maintaining property rights in financial markets. NEAR Intents also declared it would forego the 5% bounty offered by Bitget for freezing attacker funds and an additional 5% for recovery, opting instead to allow more funds to be returned to Bitget through appropriate legal processes.
The intervention by NEAR Intents highlights a growing divergence in how decentralized protocols approach compliance and asset protection. By actively blocking transfers and freezing funds, NEAR Intents challenges the traditional notion that permissionless infrastructure must remain entirely neutral. This stance suggests that major cross-chain providers are increasingly willing to implement selective censorship mechanisms to protect institutional credibility and user trust, even if it contradicts the pure decentralization ethos often cited by competitors like THORChain. The decision to waive bounties further signals a strategic shift toward prioritizing long-term ecosystem integrity over immediate financial incentives.
This development underscores the operational risks facing exchanges and protocols when third-party security vulnerabilities are exploited. While stablecoin issuers like Circle and Tether can leverage centralized control to blacklist wallets, decentralized swap protocols face complex trade-offs between open access and crime prevention. The tension illustrated here may accelerate the adoption of hybrid models where certain layers of the crypto stack incorporate compliance tools without compromising the broader network's functionality. Market participants should monitor whether other decentralized finance protocols follow NEAR Intents' lead in implementing active laundering countermeasures, as this could reshape the regulatory landscape for DeFi infrastructure.
