NEAR Protocol's Exploit Exposes Price to Bad Headlines Despite 182% Monthly Surge

NEAR Protocol's cross-chain swap service, NEAR Intents, thwarted a massive attempt by hackers to transfer over $50 million in stolen funds from the Bitget exchange on September 29. The SHIELD security system successfully blocked most of the attempts, but around $503,000 was frozen mid-swap, and approximately $166,000 was successfully transferred out. The hackers redirected their efforts elsewhere, using Zcash's privacy pool to obscure their trail.

Just two days later, on October 1, NEAR Intents faced its own internal security challenge, losing $3.8 million due to a bug in the smart contract that manages deposits and withdrawals on the cross-chain bridge. The SHIELD system detected the suspicious activity and paused operations across 11 networks. NEAR Intents also committed to compensating affected users, and the NEAR blockchain and its main token remained secure.

Remarkably, within less than a day, the hacker returned the entire $3.8 million. The recent exploit may have left NEAR's price exposed to bad headlines, but the incident was contained and resolved quickly. The key concern remains the potential for a price drop following such a remarkable surge.