High risk, High rewardTHORChain / BitcoinKUCOIN:RUNEBTCdead4586THORChain has suffered repeated hacks. It was compromised twice in July 2021 in addition to today’s theft. THOR’s founder, JP Thorbjornsen, was also personally targeted in 2025 by probable North Korean hackers. Cumulative losses from these thefts now approach USD 25 million. THORChain has also become the bridge of choice for the laundering of North Korea’s mega-heists, most notably 2025’s USD 1.5 billion hack of Bybit, and most recently, the nearly USD 300 million hack of KelpDAO. THORChain has consistently refused to block illicit activity, framing its stance as supporting free speech and against “censorship.” At the time of writing, TRM has not attributed the May 15 exploit to any specific actor. The same cross-chain swap mechanics that make THORChain useful for legitimate users also make it a default rail for moving stolen funds across chains, and the protocol's role as both attack surface and laundering venue is now the operational picture compliance teams are working with. For compliance teams at exchanges, that means any deposit pathway with THORChain-adjacent counterparty exposure now sits in the path of both these exploit proceeds and a longer pattern of high-volume illicit flows.