JP Thor Opposes a Full THORChain Shutdown After FBI Alert

THORChain co-founder JP Thor opposed taking the cross-chain protocol offline after U.S. agencies urged crypto services to block transfers linked to the Binance theft, drawing a line between transaction controls and a network shutdown.

“IMO if THORNodes decided to take the protocol offline next week then the experiment is over,” JP Thor wrote. Thor’s post addressed disabling THORChain as a whole and left his view on blocking specific addresses unstated.

An Oct. 31 FBI alert, issued with the U.S. Secret Service and Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, urged THORNode operators and other virtual-asset providers to block transactions “with or derived from” addresses tied to laundering the stolen funds. The FBI attributed the theft of more than $6 billion from Binance on or about Oct. 29 to North Korea’s TraderTraitor activity.

Binance resumed withdrawals in phases Nov. 1, starting at 1 a.m. ET (06:00 UTC). All 15 networks and assets in the first phase were available by 7:36 a.m. ET (12:36 UTC).

THORChain is a cross-chain liquidity protocol that enables swaps of native assets across blockchains.