FBI Wants THORChain to Freeze North Korean Hacker Funds; RUNE Sinks 17.7%

The Federal Bureau of Investigation wants the crypto industry to shut the door on North Korea. According to AMBCrypto, the bureau is urging THORChain's node operators, RPC node operators, instant exchanges, DeFi firms and blockchain analytics outfits to block transactions involving — or derived from — addresses belonging to TraderTraitor actors. The request landed hard: RUNE shed 17.7% of its value in 24 hours, with short-selling picking up as Open Interest climbed and funding rates slid.

The timing is awkward. On 31 October, THORChain paused trading across several blockchains after an Ethereum one-block reorg caused the protocol to pay out 10 ETH that a vault never received. Node operators halted every chain as a precaution so developers could dig in. As AMBCrypto noted, that accidental pause also stalled the North Korean hackers mid-flow.

Not everyone thinks THORChain should be doing the FBI's blocking. Co-founder Chad Barraford argued that node operators hold no secret information, saying they have zero data that isn't already public and available in real time — no subpoenas required. Catherine Chan, Global Head of Business Development and Partnerships at Solv Protocol, pushed back.

The crux is whether THORChain is a protocol or an exchange. Barraford's line is that arbitrageurs supplied the BTC, sourcing it from centralized exchanges that ran the KYC — so the problem sits with them. But every BTC sent is signed from THORChain's TSS vaults, nodes hold the keys, collect fees and can vote to halt the chain. AMBCrypto points out that 85% of the Bybit hack, roughly $1.2B, was washed into BTC through THORChain, with nodes, LPs and front-ends banking $12M in fees from it.

The chart isn't offering comfort either. RUNE slipped below the $0.60 swing low set in late September, a level that had been holding the daily bullish trend together — a clean break that signals a trend shift. The former supply zone at $0.50 has drawn some demand in recent hours, but a slide into the $0.41-$0.50 long-term demand zone is the next thing traders are watching.