Near Intents blocks $50m in Bitget hack laundering flows
Near Intents says its SHIELD system stopped more than $50m in laundering attempts linked to Bitget's $387.5m hack, freezing $503,000 and waiving its recovery bounty.
Key points
- Bitget suffered a hack on Sept. 24 in which about $387.5 million was stolen.
- Near Intents detected over $50 million in attempted laundering flows tied to the breach.
- About $166,000 passed through, while $503,000 was frozen during execution.
- Aurora co-founder Alex Shevchenko said the protocol would waive its recovery bounty.
- Bitget CEO Gracy Chen praised the intervention and said she would pursue legal and recovery steps.
Near Intents blocked more than $50 million in attempted laundering flows linked to the Bitget hack, according to Bitcoin.com News. The cross-chain protocol's SHIELD security system detected the suspicious activity and stopped most of the attempted transfers, with only about $166,000 passing through and another $503,000 frozen mid-execution.
The Bitget hack took place on Sept. 24 and resulted in roughly $387.5 million being stolen. On Sept. 28, Ukrainian blockchain engineer and Aurora co-founder Alex Shevchenko set out Near Intents' response to the breach. He said much of the cryptocurrency moving through cross-chain services eventually converged on Ethereum as ETH, and that the attackers tried to route more than $50 million through Near Intents.
Near Intents routinely handles over $100 million in daily cross-chain trading volume. Its SHIELD layer is an automated risk-intelligence system that monitors transaction patterns and draws on information from blockchain intelligence firms, know-your-transaction providers, independent researchers and industry participants. When suspicious activity appears, SHIELD can decline to provide transaction quotes or halt transfers already underway.
SHIELD halts laundering attempts
Shevchenko said SHIELD identified more than $50 million in attempted laundering flows once duplicate transactions were filtered out. He cautioned that the figures are rounded estimates and that attribution errors of up to 10% are possible. The frozen $503,000 remains restricted pending legal and recovery proceedings, and Near Intents has directed Bitget to pursue those funds through established legal and law enforcement channels.
Near Intents also said it would waive its share of Bitget's recovery bounty, leaving more money for the exchange to recover. Bitget CEO Gracy Chen welcomed the intervention in a post responding to Shevchenko, saying the protocol had flagged more than $50 million in attempted laundering flows, frozen $503,000 mid-execution and given up its bounty share. She said a public chain does not have to choose between being open and excluding hackers, and that more protocols should take note.
Chen said she would follow up with the appropriate legal and recovery process and thanked the Near Intents team, adding that the matter is important to Bitget and to the industry. She has previously called on decentralized protocols such as Thorchain to prevent known stolen assets from moving through their infrastructure.
Bitget chief welcomes response
The episode feeds a wider argument over whether decentralized infrastructure should restrict transactions tied to stolen cryptocurrency. Shevchenko's position is that building permissionless systems does not require operators to facilitate the laundering of stolen property. He also warned wallet providers that integrations with questionable liquidity sources can expose operators and users to legal, regulatory and reputational consequences.