Bitget Hacker Routes Stolen Funds Through Zcash Privacy Pool After Near Protocol Rejects Swaps

WHY IT MATTERS

When a crypto exchange gets hacked, the stolen funds usually leave a trail on the blockchain — think of it like a public ledger where every transaction is visible. Investigators can follow this trail to try to freeze or recover the money. However, some cryptocurrencies like Zcash offer privacy features that work like an opaque envelope around a transaction, hiding who sent what to whom. When a hacker uses these privacy tools, it is like switching from a glass truck to an unmarked van — much harder to track. This story also shows how some platforms can refuse to process suspicious transactions (as Near-based services reportedly did here), while fully decentralized protocols may lack the ability to do so. For newcomers, this illustrates a core debate in crypto: privacy is valued by many legitimate users, but the same tools can be exploited by bad actors.