NEAR Intents Hacker Returns $3.8M After 48-Hour Deadline

NEAR Intents, a cross-chain protocol, suffered a $3.8 million hack that has now been fully refunded by the attacker. The protocol halted operations on Thursday after detecting a bug in its Omni deposit and withdrawal infrastructure, which interacted with its smart contract. This bug led to the loss of USDT on the BNB Smart Chain, while the NEAR token, core protocol, and other apps on the network remained untouched.

Following the hack, the NEAR Intents team gave the attacker a 48-hour deadline to return the funds. The team's general manager, Alex Shevchenko, communicated with the perpetrator through a private channel, ultimately leading to the return of the stolen funds. Shevchenko thanked the attacker for their cooperation and suggested using bug bounties instead of disrupting services.

NEAR Intents had previously promised its users full reimbursement prior to the return of the funds. The team's co-founder, Illia Polosukhin, stated that the damage from the hack was limited to USDT on the BNB Smart Chain. The protocol's volume has reportedly handled over $30 billion across 35 blockchains.

The incident is one of the few hacking cases in the crypto industry this year that ended with the money coming back. NEAR slipped about 6% in the hours after the news, trading near $4.95 before settling around $4.81.