NEAR Protocol's NEAR Intents Block Stolen Funds, But Lose Millions in Own Security Breach

NEAR Protocol's cross-chain swap service, NEAR Intents, recently thwarted over $50 million in stolen funds linked to the Bitget hack. The hackers attempted swaps through NEAR Intents after stealing $387.5 million from Bitget on September 24.

However, approximately $503,000 was frozen mid-swap and about $166,000 was successfully transferred out.

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. Remarkably, within less than a day, the hacker returned the entire $3.8 million.