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NEAR Defends Blocking Bitget Hack Funds, Says Permissionless 'Doesn't Mean Neutral'
On Tuesday, protocol NEAR Intents blocked more than $50 million in attempted transfers linked to the $387.5 million Bitget hack, with General Manager Alex Shevchenko confirming the SHIELD system intercepted the illicit flows.
Attackers exploited a third-party vulnerability on Thursday, September 24, 2026, to compromise Bitget wallet infrastructure; Bitget CEO Gracy Chen confirmed cold wallets and private keys remained secure.
Unlike THORChain, which maintains it cannot selectively censor transactions by design, NEAR Intents asserts it can reject activity before swaps complete. Shevchenko argued that permissionless systems should not facilitate laundering.
Forgoing the 5% bounty offered by Bitget, NEAR Intents will return the intercepted $503,000 through legal channels, while Circle and Tether blacklisted addresses, freezing approximately $318,000 in stablecoins.
Security firms Mandiant and SlowMist continue assisting Bitget with forensic investigations, with the exchange scheduling remaining token and peer-to-peer withdrawal services to return October 2, 2026.
NEAR Intents blocked some $503,000 related to the September 24 attack on Bitget during the execution, while more than $50 million in hack-related transfer attempts were detected by their SHIELD risk system. The case opens a new front in the debate on how far protocols can go and [...] The NEAR Intents ticket froze $503,000 linked to Bitget's hack was first published in Cryptoreport.