NEAR Intents Recovers $3.8 Million Following Smart Contract Exploit
The cross-chain protocol NEAR Intents has recovered approximately $3.8 million in USDT after a suspected exploiter returned the funds following a 48-hour ultimatum.
NEAR Intents has successfully recovered $3.8 million in USDT after a security incident involving a smart contract vulnerability. The protocol officially closed its investigation into the matter on October 4.
The exploit occurred between September 30 and October 1, 2026, when an attacker leveraged a bug in a treasury contract on BNB Chain. The funds were removed through a series of withdrawals over the two-day period, totaling approximately $3.87 million.
The protocol’s SHIELD AI security layer identified the unauthorized activity, prompting the team to pause services and patch the vulnerability within an hour. General Manager Alex Shevchenko stated that the team identified the suspected exploiter and issued a 48-hour deadline for the return of the assets, providing specific addresses across BTC, EVM, and Solana.
Following the return of the funds, NEAR Intents confirmed it would compensate users impacted by the incident. Operations across 11 networks, including BSC and Polygon, were paused for approximately 12 hours to allow for infrastructure repairs before resuming.
The incident highlights the risks inherent in cross-chain infrastructure, where a single contract bug can necessitate broad service pauses across multiple connected networks. Prior to this exploit, NEAR Intents had reportedly blocked nearly $50 million in transfers linked to a separate hack of the Bitget exchange, including freezing $503,000 in attempted transactions.
