NEAR Intents Identifies Hacker Behind $3.8M Theft, Issues 48-Hour Ultimatum
NEAR Intents announced it has identified the individual responsible for the theft of $3.8 million in user funds. General manager Alex Shevchenko addressed the hacker directly, demanding the return of the stolen assets within 48 hours and provided multiple crypto addresses for repayment. The platform paused services after discovering a bug in the interaction between its smart contract and deposit-withdrawal infrastructure.
Incident and Vulnerability Discovery
On Thursday, NEAR Intents paused its services after detecting a bug within its Omni deposit and withdrawal infrastructure interacting with the NEAR Intents smart contract. A preliminary investigation revealed that this exploit allowed the hacker to steal $3.8 million of user funds.
Following the incident, the company pledged to fully compensate all users affected by the theft.
Company Response and Theft Trail
NEAR Intents’ general manager, Alex Shevchenko, posted on X that the team identified the hacker and urged a return of the stolen funds under the concept of 'responsible disclosure,' providing three separate wallet addresses for Bitcoin, BNB, and Solana to receive repayments.
Blockchain investigator ZachXBT reported that the stolen funds were transferred to the KuCoin exchange and converted into Bitcoin through a bridging process.
Why it matters
This story highlights how NEAR Intents is actively responding to a significant cyber incident by identifying the vulnerability and directly addressing the perpetrator. The 48-hour deadline to return funds emphasizes the company’s commitment to protect its reputation and mitigate client losses. Additionally, it underscores the part that public pressure and community-driven investigations by the likes of ZachXBT play in combating crypto fraud and vulnerabilities within blockchain infrastructures.
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