Near Intents halts swaps after $3.8M exploit, pledges full compensation
In brief
- Near Intents lost about $3.8 million to an attacker, according to Decrypt.
- Near Intents' team blamed a bug between its Omni layer and main smart contract.
- Near Intents said lost funds will be compensated in full.
- NEAR fell 8.93% to $4.86; Bitwise's Near ETF dropped more than 7%, Decrypt reported.
- Link to the Bitget hacker remains unclear, per Decrypt.
What broke
Near Intents said in a post on X (as reported by Decrypt) that the problem sat in how its Omni deposit and withdrawal layer talked to the main smart contract. The contract-side hole is patched, the team said, and core services were expected to resume within about an hour.
Not everything came back at once. Deposits and withdrawals on 11 networks, including BNB Chain, Polygon and Optimism, were expected to stay down for roughly 12 more hours while the Omni fixes were completed.
"The incident has been reported to law enforcement, and we are working with security and blockchain analytics partners to trace the funds and pursue recovery." (NEAR Intents team, post on X)
The team said lost funds "will be compensated in full." That pledge matters, since crypto balances don't carry bank-style deposit insurance. It hasn't disclosed whose funds were taken, and it says a detailed report is coming in the next few days.
The Bitget backdrop
Two days before the exploit, Near Intents blocked a $50 million swap attempt from the Bitget hacker, who stole around $387.5 million from the exchange the previous week. Bitget CEO Gracy Chen and blockchain analytics firm Elliptic pointed to North Korea as the likely culprit, though that hasn't been confirmed.
Are the two incidents connected? Decrypt says it's not clear.
Market reaction
The timing was rough. Bitwise's Near ETF launched two days before the incident, and Decrypt reported that NEAR fell 8.93% to $4.86 on the day while the ETF shares dropped more than 7%. Bitwise first filed for the fund in April 2025, when NEAR traded at $2.61; the token had almost doubled since then.
Near Intents isn't a small venue. It's handled more than $30 billion in swaps across 35 blockchains, using a model where users state what they want and rival market makers compete to fill the order. Cross-chain infrastructure has been a weak point before (about $100 million disappeared in the Harmony bridge hack in 2022).
Frequently asked questions
What caused the Near Intents exploit?
Near Intents attributed the incident to a bug in how its Omni deposit and withdrawal layer interacted with the main smart contract that holds user funds. The team said the contract-side vulnerability was patched and that it would publish a detailed report in the coming days.
Will Near Intents users get their money back?
Near Intents said the lost funds would be compensated in full. It also said the incident was reported to law enforcement and that it was working with security and blockchain analytics partners to trace and recover the funds. It had not disclosed whose funds were taken.
