THORChain pauses operations after Ethereum reorg triggers double refund

A duplicate 10 ETH refund tripped the protocol's emergency brake, and Chainalysis tied the halt to funds stolen from Binance THORChain hit the emergency brake after an Ethereum reorganization caused the protocol to refund the same deposit twice. The pause had a side effect that matters beyond one refund. According to Chainalysis, the halt was connected to funds stolen from Binance, and it slowed efforts to launder them. What happened on the chain On October 31, 2026, Ethereum went through an unexpected reorganization, usually called a reorg. THORChain then mistakenly issued a duplicate refund on a deposit of 10 ETH. To picture a reorg, imagine a shared notebook where several people write down transactions. Two people briefly record different versions of the last page, and the group eventually tears one out and keeps the other. In technical terms, the network swaps out recently confirmed blocks for a competing chain of blocks. Transactions that looked final can shift, disappear, or show up again in a new position. For a cross-chain protocol that watches Ethereum and responds to deposits, that is a problem. If the history it saw gets rewritten, it can act on the same event twice. Her...