NEAR Intents Hit by $3.8 Million Security Breach Due to Smart Contract Bug

NEAR Intents, a protocol that allows users to bridge assets between different blockchain networks, suffered a significant security breach on October 1. The incident resulted in an estimated loss of $3.8 million.

The security breach was caused by a bug in the interaction between the Omni deposit and withdrawal infrastructure and the trading platform's smart contract. According to ZachXBT, a well-known on-chain investigator, the attacker made several withdrawals from NEAR Intents' hot wallet on the BSC network. The funds were then transferred to the KuCoin exchange and converted into Bitcoin.

The NEAR Intents team has since resolved the issue, but deposits and withdrawals on multiple networks will remain unavailable for approximately 12 more hours while developers complete the necessary fixes. The protocol's website is back online, and the team has promised to fully compensate users for their losses.

It's worth noting that this incident follows a similar security breach reported by Bitget on September 24, where unauthorized transfers from hot wallets resulted in an estimated loss of $351.6 million.