THORChain Co-Founder to Ask Treasury About Returning Bitget Fees

THORChain co-founder Chad Barraford said he would ask the protocol’s Treasury to consider returning some developer fund income from swaps involving funds stolen from Bitget, putting fee revenue at the center of a dispute over the hack proceeds.

Attackers took $387.5 million from Bitget on Sept. 24 and routed the funds through THORChain into Bitcoin (BTC). Bitget has said it will cover the losses through its Protection Fund.

The swaps generated $573,226 in THORChain liquidity fees through Oct. 2, equal to 75.3% of the $761,725 in protocol and service fees tracked over the same period. Affiliate fees were not included. Barraford said the developer fund receives about 5% of the income, describing its share as “a very small sliver.”

Barraford said the Treasury could consider sending Bitget some of the income controlled by the developer fund. He said he had not recently reviewed how much the fund received.

Bitget previously asked THORChain to block the attacker’s wallets. The protocol rejected the request, saying its design does not censor transactions. Barraford said node operators can return their own rewards to Bitget. He said reaching a two-thirds validator majority can take days; THORChain’s current pause mechanism affects the whole network rather than an individual wallet.

The dispute continues a debate over how long THORChain validator votes can take to slow Bitget-linked funds. Barraford said he would raise the refund idea with the Treasury.