NEAR Intents Demands $3.8M Exploit Return Within 48 Hours

NEAR Intents, a cross-chain protocol within the NEAR Protocol ecosystem, has identified an individual responsible for the $3.8 million loss disclosed on October 1. Alex Shevchenko, the general manager of NEAR Intents, posted on his personal account on X, giving the individual 48 hours to return the funds. The deadline is set to close on October 4 at 00:18 UTC, marking the final chance for the individual to settle the matter under responsible disclosure.

The protocol allows users to swap assets across different blockchains by specifying the outcome they want, which is then filled by a network of market participants. However, on October 1, NEAR Intents paused services due to a bug in the Omni deposit and withdrawal infrastructure interaction with its smart contract. The project attributed the cause to a vulnerability on the smart contract side, which had been patched, and promised to cover the preliminary loss of approximately $3.8 million in full.

Shevchenko's post on X included three return addresses: Bitcoin (bc1qjhv3hu8rfteh5e8exfmalvx2z3pzlmjlgnzxey), BNB/Ethereum (0xB18a1aEDfde8B70FD67012C9E9c7a088B4d0C0e7), and Solana (AHTfKaeRcaK1sbSG8MFJS2uPxLBChfenigNtvbWEkhKD). He emphasized that this was the last window for responsible disclosure and that the deadline would close after 48 hours.