Overview
- A vulnerability in NEAR Intents’ Omni deposit and withdrawal interaction with its smart contract allowed about $3.8 million to be taken, the project said after pausing services and patching the contract on Oct. 1.
- Core Intents services and near.com were brought back online after the contract fix, but deposits and withdrawals on around 11 networks remained restricted while Omni-related infrastructure repairs continued.
- On‑chain investigators traced the stolen funds from a BNB Chain hot wallet to KuCoin and then into bitcoin, and NEAR Intents has opened a 48‑hour demand for return while working with law enforcement and forensic firms to recover assets.
- The team pledged full reimbursement to affected users and plans a formal postmortem, saying SHIELD detection flagged the incident and that findings will drive stronger contract verification and monitoring.
- The breach knocked NEAR’s price down roughly 6–10% and presents an early stress test for the newly launched Bitwise NEAR ETF, highlighting broader risks in middle‑layer swap services and the need for tighter hot‑wallet and screening controls.