- The RUNE price rallied over 20% as traders rewarded the THORChain protocol’s strict adherence to censorship resistance.
- Centralized exchange Bitget suffered a massive hot wallet breach, losing $387.5M to an attacker.
- Bitget’s CEO demanded a wallet freeze, but THORChain refused, stating its permissionless network cannot selectively block individual swaps.
A high-stakes clash between the ideals of decentralized finance (DeFi) and centralized authority has created a heated discussion among the crypto community, triggering a massive price rally for THORChain’s native token, RUNE.
The $387.5M Bitget Exploit and the Call to Freeze
Centralized exchange Bitget experienced a massive attack on its hot and warm wallets on September 24, 2026, which led to the loss of $387.5 million. While the hacker was working on laundering the stolen assets, Bitget CEO Gracy Chen publicly called on THORChain’s validator network to step in. THORChain was tagged by Chen on X, who said, “Decentralization is a design principle and a shield to not facilitate known stolen funds. The industry is watching.”
THORChain firmly rejected the request. In an X post, the protocol explained its structural limits, stating, “A THORChain network halt is an emergency security mechanism designed to protect the protocol. And a halt is not a selective freeze of specific funds or an individual swap.”
THORChain highlighted its May 2026 exploit that resulted in $10.7M stolen from a liquidity pool, and even then attackers’ addresses were never blacklisted and therefore never prevented from swapping on THORChain.
“THORChain is permissionless and doesn’t censor by design,” the protocol added.
Instead of hurting THORChain’s image, its non-negotiable attitude ignited immediate bullish momentum for the token. The RUNE price jumped nearly 18% last Saturday as traders were supporting the protocol for its efforts to maintain the narrative of its complete neutrality and censorship resistance.
Amid the chaos of the narrative, THORChain also recorded a staggering $200 million worth of trading on September 25th, with around $382,000 worth of protocol revenue generated. Security data showed the attacker successfully routed at least 27 swaps on THORChain, bringing 2,390 ETH (about $6.3 million) into native bitcoins to circumvent the central administration’s freeze orders from stablecoin issuers such as Tether and Circle.
The whole Web3 community is split on the issue, revealing a profound philosophical divide. Leading DeFi advocates expressed appreciation for THORChain’s integrity, stating that layer-1 protocols need to be neutral infrastructure. However, critics were quick to point out alleged double standards. SlowMist founder Cosine and other top security personalities have raised concerns over the ethics of validators receiving transaction fees from obviously stolen funds.
Others were aware of the fact that THORChain had already used its emergency “red button” to halt the network completely for 5 weeks back in the day when it suffered an exploit in its vaults. Moreover, Star Xu, the founder of OKX, questioned the comparison to Bitcoin, stating that unlike Bitcoin, which is governed by a fixed set of rules, THORChain is operated by an active community of validators who have the potential to coordinate their actions if they so choose.
Bitget Responds with SAFU Fund
As the voices argue on social media, Bitget has taken quick action to quell the panic among consumers. The exchange reassured users that its $464 million protection fund will fully cover all customer balances, preventing any direct financial loss for its user base. Bitget has since recovered and safely enabled Bitcoin withdrawals, and set up a 5% recovery bounty on the uncollected funds.
Rune Price Builds Major Accumulation Pattern
The RUNE price has experienced a significant recovery from $0.611 to $0.774 over the last seven days, registering a gain of 26.7%. While the aforementioned controversy significantly contributed to this surge, the technical analysis offers its own explanation for the price recovery.
The daily timeframe chart shows that the RUNE price has recently emerged from the multi-month accumulation phase below the $0.64 ceiling. This recovery trend resembles the formation of a traditional reversal pattern called a rounding bottom.
As shown in the chart below, this saucer-shaped pattern displays three distinct phases of trend change: the depleting downtrend, accumulation zone, and expansion phase. Thus, the RUNE price is currently navigating through the third, recovery phase of this trend, which could drive the price another 24% to challenge the potential neckline resistance of $0.962.
A possible breakout from this barrier will accelerate the bullish momentum in RUNE price and drive a potential rally to $1.63.
