NEAR Intents suffers $3.8M exploit after assistance with Bitget breach
Cross-chain protocol NEAR Intents disclosed a security breach that drained $3.8 million in user funds, attributing the incident to a bug in its Omni deposit and withdrawal integration with the NEAR Intents smart contract. The platform said it has patched the contract vulnerability, reported the incident to law enforcement, and will fully reimburse affected users.
Why It Matters
The exploit occurred after NEAR Intents had been assisting the Bitget exchange following a separate $388 million hack, highlighting continued cross-protocol risks in bridge and deposit/withdrawal infrastructures. The incident underscores challenges in tracing and recovering stolen funds even as platforms coordinate with exchanges and analytics partners.
Key Facts
- Loss amount: $3.8 million
- Cause: Bug in Omni deposit and withdrawal interaction with NEAR Intents smart contract
- Remediation: Contract-side vulnerability patched
- Compensation: NEAR Intents said it will compensate affected users in full
- Reporting and investigation: Incident reported to law enforcement; working with security and blockchain analytics partners
NEAR Intents announced a security incident that resulted in the loss of $3.8 million from user funds. In a statement on X, the protocol attributed the breach to a bug arising from the interaction between its Omni deposit and withdrawal infrastructure and the NEAR Intents smart contract. NEAR Intents said the contract-side vulnerability has been fixed.
The team said it will reimburse all users impacted by the exploit and that it has notified law enforcement while collaborating with security firms and blockchain analytics partners to trace the stolen funds and attempt recovery. A more detailed incident report was promised to be published in the coming days.
Blockchain investigator ZachXBT analyzed on-chain movements and reported that the stolen funds were sent to the KuCoin exchange and then bridged into Bitcoin. NEAR Intents did not identify the attacker in its initial disclosure, and at the time of reporting the perpetrator remained unknown.
The incident followed NEAR Intents' involvement in responding to a separate breach at the Bitget exchange, which lost $388 million in a hack last week. NEAR Intents previously said it blocked $50 million and froze over $500,000 in funds tied to the Bitget attack. Bitget CEO Gracy Chen has suggested North Korean actors may be behind the exchange breach.
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