NEAR Intents suffers $3.8 million exploit via smart contract bug

NEAR Intents, a cross-chain infrastructure protocol within the NEAR ecosystem, suffered a $3.8 million exploit targeting its Omni deposit and withdrawal system. The breach, caused by a bug in the interaction between the Omni infrastructure and the protocol’s smart contracts, primarily affected USDT assets on the BNB Chain.

Following the detection of the exploit, the NEAR Intents team halted services to implement a patch, which was completed within an hour. While the underlying NEAR Protocol remains secure, deposits and withdrawals across several networks—including BSC, Polygon, TON, Optimism, Avalanche, and Stellar—were temporarily suspended during the remediation process. The protocol has pledged to fully reimburse all affected users.

The incident occurred shortly after Bitwise launched a NEAR spot ETF in the United States, which had seen significant initial inflows. The news of the hack triggered a market reaction, with the NEAR token price dropping approximately 10% to around $4.86. Blockchain analysts have traced the stolen funds to the KuCoin exchange, where they were reportedly converted into Bitcoin. The NEAR Intents general manager has issued a 48-hour ultimatum for the return of the funds.