NEAR Intents says it blocked $50M tied to Bitget hackers
NEAR Intents said its SHIELD system blocked more than $50 million in attempted transfers tied to the Bitget hack, in which attackers stole $387.5 million. Some stolen funds moved across chains, mainly to Ethereum, but NEAR Intents said it froze $503,000 during execution and about $166,000 of suspected stolen funds still passed through. The response highlights a broader dispute in crypto over whether permissionless protocols should refuse services to illicit funds. NEAR Intents said it will actively prevent laundering and that open access does not require neutrality toward stolen assets. It also said it will give up Bitget’s 5% freeze bounty and another 5% recovery bounty so more funds can be returned through legal channels. Separately, Circle and Tether blacklisted a related wallet, freezing over $318,000 in USDT and USDC. Bitget also urged THORChain to block attack-linked addresses, but THORChain said it does not selectively censor funds.
