NEAR Intents Recovered $3.8M in Exploit, but Design Failure Remains Unexplained

NEAR Intents, a protocol that coordinates deposits, withdrawals, and cross-chain execution, recently experienced an exploit that resulted in the loss of approximately $3.8 million. The protocol's general manager, Alex Shevchenko, confirmed that the stolen funds had been returned in full, but emphasized that the return was a result of the protocol's existing commitment to compensate affected users, rather than a direct reimbursement.

The exploit occurred on October 1, when NEAR Intents detected a bug involving the interaction between its Omni deposit and withdrawal infrastructure and an Intents smart contract. The flaw was on the contract side and was patched shortly after detection.

The initial response to the exploit affected deposits and withdrawals across 11 networks, including BNB Chain, Polygon, TON, Optimism, Avalanche, Stellar, and Scroll. The assets were transferred through KuCoin and then bridged into Bitcoin, according to analysis by blockchain investigator ZachXBT.