$50 million in Bitget hacker swaps puts NEAR Intents’ ‘permissionless’ claim to the test
Summary
NEAR Intents says its SHIELD system blocked most of more than $50 million in attempted transfers linked to last week’s $388 million Bitget breach. About $166,000 passed through, while $503,000 was frozen pending legal and recovery processes; the figures are estimates and attempted amounts are not funds recovered. The service uses risk signals to delay or restrict suspicious swaps, prompting debate over whether a platform that can hold funds is truly permissionless. NEAR co-founder Illia Polosukhin argued that permissionless blockchain access does not require every application or liquidity provider to process every transaction. The protocol has not explained who can authorize release of frozen funds or how wrongly flagged users can appeal.
