NEAR Intents Hit by $3.8M Cross-Chain Security Breach

NEAR Intents, a protocol for cross-chain transactions, has been hit by a security breach resulting in the theft of $3.8 million. General Manager Alex Shevchenko has given the suspected attacker 48 hours to return the stolen funds, while the protocol continues its recovery efforts.

The attacker, whose identity has been revealed but not disclosed, withdrew $3.865 million in USDT from the BNB Chain Vault through five major withdrawals within six hours. Bitquery, a blockchain intelligence company, has tracked the movement of the stolen funds, which were converted into BNB and distributed across multiple newly created wallets.

The funds were then moved via various cross-chain exchanges, including the THORChain exchange. A smaller part was also converted into Monero-related cryptocurrency using the Hyperliquid exchange.

NEAR Intents has pledged to fully reimburse users affected by the incident and has blocked $50 million worth of funds related to the Bitget security breach, which it helped handle earlier.