Basri Caneri 
The decentralized cross-chain liquidity protocol THORChain has been at the center of controversy in the crypto world in recent days. The fact that hackers who stole $1.4 billion in assets from the Bybit exchange used THORChain in their fund movements brought up allegations that the protocol facilitated illegal transfers.
The February 21 Bybit attack was recorded as one of the biggest hacking incidents in crypto history. Blockchain security firms stated that the North Korea-linked Lazarus Group was behind the attack. Hackers made extensive use of THORChain to launder stolen assets and the protocol’s transaction volume exploded.
- THORChain’s total swap volume exceeded $5.4 billion.
- The protocol generated $5.5 million in revenue after the hack.
- In a single day after the attack, $1 billion in swap volume was recorded.
- On February 27, THORChain’s daily revenue reached $554,000.
In this process of increasing discussions on crypto security, THORChain is criticized for not being able to prevent hackers’ transactions due to its decentralized structure.
Resignation Decision from THORChain Developer
After the protocol was used by hackers, internal discussions started in the THORChain community. On February 28, a developer announced his departure from the protocol.
One of THORChain’s core developers, who goes by the pseudonym “Pluto ”, announced that he was leaving the project after a decision to block North Korea-linked illicit funds was overturned.
In a February 27 post, Pluto said, “I will no longer contribute to THORChain.”
While these discussions continued, Elliptic identified 11,084 wallet addresses linked to the Bybit hack on February 26. Bybit CEO Ben Zhou said on March 4 that $280 million of the stolen funds have been completely lost.
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