These Blockchains Can Freeze Your Crypto Funds Bybit

• Bybit’s Lazarus Security Lab found 16 blockchains with built-in fund-freeze capabilities.

• Another 19 could add the feature with minor protocol updates.

• The findings reignite debate over centralization and on-chain governance transparency.

In an industry built on decentralization, a new report from Bybit’s Lazarus Security Lab suggests many major blockchains aren’t as trustless as they seem.

The lab’s analysis revealed that 16 leading blockchains — including Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL), BNB Chain (BNB), and Polygon (POL) — contain code that allows developers or governance bodies to freeze user funds.

While intended as a safeguard against hacks and illicit transfers, the findings have reignited a long-running debate: how decentralized are the systems that underpin the broader crypto industry.

Inside the Bybit Report

The report, titled “Blockchain Freezing Exposed: Examining the Impact of Fund Freezing Ability in Blockchain,” examined 166 blockchain codebases using an AI-assisted framework designed to detect freeze-related patterns such as blacklisting, address filtering, and transaction halts.

Among the 166 networks reviewed, 16 were confirmed to have native freeze mechanisms embedded directly in their architecture. These included.

• Ethereum — Emergency pause via governance (EIP-3074-like hooks)

• Binance Smart Chain (BSC) — Validator-based blacklist consensus

• Polygon — Dynamic address filtering in transaction pools

• Solana — Runtime configuration updates for blacklisting

• Avalanche — Governance-triggered transaction halts

• Tron — Built-in blacklist module

• Cosmos — IBC pause and address bans

• Polkadot — Parachain-specific freezes via relay chain

• Cardano — Hard forks with address exclusions

• Tezos — Governance votes enabling freezes

• Near Protocol — Shard-level transaction filters

• Algorand — Atomic transfers with revocation keys

• Hedera Hashgraph — Administrative token freeze controls

• Stellar — Clawback and freeze clauses in asset issuance

• Ripple (XRP Ledger) — Escrow and line-freeze functionality

• VeChain — Authority-based transaction controls

• Bybit’s team noted that 19 other blockchains could easily adopt similar controls through small protocol tweaks — indicating how pervasive such mechanisms could become.

  Pragmatic Security or Hidden Centralization?

  The Lazarus report acknowledges that freezing functions can serve practical security purposes.

  For example:

  • Sui froze $162 million in stolen funds after the Cetus hack.

  • BNB Chain blacklisted addresses during its $570 million bridge exploit in 2022.

  • VeChain halted $6.6 million worth of compromised tokens back in 2019.