Near Intents suspended services on Thursday following a security incident that resulted in the loss of approximately $3.8 million. The team identified a bug in the interaction between its Omni deposit and withdrawal infrastructure and the NEAR Intents smart contract as the cause of the exploit. On-chain analyst ZachXBT reported that the stolen funds were moved to KuCoin and subsequently bridged to bitcoin. Near Intents stated it has contacted law enforcement and is working with blockchain analytics partners to trace the assets, promising full compensation for affected users.
The breach occurred just two days after Near Intents blocked a $50 million swap attempt linked to the hacker responsible for stealing around $387.5 million from crypto exchange Bitget last week. While Bitget CEO Gracy Chen and Elliptic attributed the Bitget theft to North Korean actors, no confirmation exists regarding a connection between the two incidents. The exploit coincided with the launch of Bitwise’s Near ETF, which had debuted two days prior. Following the news, the NEAR token fell 6.7% to $4.96, while ETF shares dropped more than 7%. Near Intents confirmed the contract-side vulnerability is patched, with core services expected to resume within an hour, though deposits and withdrawals across 11 networks remain paused for roughly 12 hours.
This incident underscores the persistent operational risks inherent in cross-chain interoperability protocols, particularly those relying on centralized or semi-centralized bridge layers like Omni. The timing is critical, occurring immediately after the platform demonstrated defensive capabilities by blocking a high-value malicious swap. This sequence suggests that while Near Intents may have successfully mitigated one specific threat vector, its underlying infrastructure remains vulnerable to novel exploits. The promise of full compensation is significant given the lack of traditional deposit insurance in crypto markets, yet it places substantial financial pressure on the protocol's treasury and raises questions about long-term sustainability if such events become frequent.
From a market structure perspective, the correlation between the hack and the recent institutional adoption milestone—the launch of the Bitwise Near ETF—highlights the fragility of new capital inflows into emerging asset classes. Institutional investors entering via regulated products are exposed to the same technical vulnerabilities as retail users, potentially dampening enthusiasm for broader crypto integration. The pause in service across major networks including BNB Chain, Polygon, and Optimism demonstrates how single points of failure in bridge infrastructure can cascade across multiple ecosystems. Regulators and institutional allocators will likely scrutinize the forthcoming detailed report to assess whether the bug was a result of inadequate testing or architectural flaws, influencing future custody and compliance standards for cross-chain tools.
