THORChain experienced a significant surge in trading activity in late September, with swap volume reaching $1.72 billion by September 26th, up from $610 million in August. Network fees also increased to $479,033.13 from $145,464.59 during the same period.
The spike in activity followed a security incident at Bitget exchange, where attackers stole funds and reportedly laundered them through THORChain to swap and transfer assets across blockchains. Bitget CEO Gracy Chen publicly called on THORChain to refuse service to the attacker addresses, stating that the company had formally requested such action and cautioning that "the industry is watching."
Decentralization vs. Responsibility Debate
THORChain responded by distinguishing its structure from centralized exchanges. While platforms like Bitget can maintain blacklists of addresses, THORChain operates as a decentralized, permissionless protocol similar to Bitcoin, Ethereum, and BNB Chain. The protocol questioned what responsibility decentralized blockchains should bear when handling stolen funds.
OKX founder Star Xu supported THORChain's position, noting that the protocol uses Threshold Signature Scheme (TSS) vaults, meaning transactions require approval from multiple validators rather than decisions by a single entity. He argued that while Bitcoin cannot be stopped, THORChain operates through consensus among participating nodes and therefore technically could choose to restrict transactions if it chose to do so.
Anndy Lian, a business strategist, argued that blaming THORChain for its decentralized design would not resolve the underlying security issues.
Market Response
Despite the criticism, THORChain's native token RUNE traded at $0.7908 at the time of reporting, up 15.8% over the previous 24 hours. Bitget continues its investigation into the breach while coordinating with law enforcement and blockchain-security firms.
