NEAR Protocol Blocks Stolen Funds, Then Loses $3.8 Million to Own Exploit

NEAR Protocol recently battled two security issues in quick succession. First, it blocked over $50 million of stolen funds from hackers who had targeted the cryptocurrency exchange Bitget. However, just two days later, NEAR lost $3.8 million to an exploit on its own cross-chain bridge platform, NEAR Intents.

The loss was due to a bug in the smart contract that manages deposits and withdrawals on the BNB Smart Chain. The SHIELD system detected the suspicious activity and paused operations across 11 networks. Fortunately, the impact was contained, and Illia Polosukhin, co-founder of NEAR, stated that the loss was limited to Tether dollar tokens on the BNB Smart Chain.

The hacker returned the entire $3.8 million within less than a day. Despite these challenges, NEAR gained an impressive 182% over the past month. However, its price dropped by 9.1% after the news of the exploit broke out.