The most revealing part of crypto’s largest theft was not the hack itself, but how much of the stolen money could be stopped by a handful of private companies.

Within hours, Tether froze more than $1.56 billion of USDT, Circle blocked more than $800 million of USDC, and Ripple and World Liberty Financial added several hundred million between them. By Friday, Binance put the frozen total near $3 billion.

An industry built to remove intermediaries had just relied on them to stop almost half the proceeds of its biggest theft.

Here’s the explanation: Bitcoin is a bearer instrument, the digital equivalent of a bearer bond, where whoever produces a valid signature owns the coin and the network has no opinion on whether they ought to.

That remains…