Hassan Maishera
TL;DR
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NEAR Intents halted services Thursday following an exploit involving approximately $3.8 million in reported losses.
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The team attributed the incident to a bug involving its Omni infrastructure and the NEAR Intents smart contract.
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NEAR Intents said the vulnerability was patched and pledged to fully compensate the lost funds.
NEAR Intents suspended operations Thursday after an exploit caused losses initially estimated at approximately $3.8 million.
The cross-chain swap protocol said the incident involved a bug in the interaction between its Omni deposit and withdrawal infrastructure and the NEAR Intents smart contract.
The team announced that it had patched the vulnerability and committed to fully compensating the lost funds. Recovery work remains underway, with a detailed post-mortem expected in the coming days.
Earlier today NEAR Intents services were stopped after a security incident was detected. The incident was caused by a bug in the Omni deposit and withdrawal infrastructure interaction with NEAR Intents smart contract.
— NEAR Intents (@near_intents) October 1, 2026
The preliminary report indicates the total loss of…
Bug Affected Deposit and Withdrawal Infrastructure
NEAR Intents allows users to exchange cryptocurrency across different blockchains.
According to the team’s statement, the exploit arose from how its Omni infrastructure interacted with the protocol’s smart contract.
The announcement identifies that interaction as the source of the vulnerability but does not provide a complete technical explanation.
The estimated $3.8 million loss comes from early reporting and could be revised as investigators establish the full scope of the incident.
The team’s planned post-mortem should provide further information about the exploit, its impact, and the measures taken to address it.
For now, the disclosed problem concerns NEAR Intents’ application infrastructure. The supplied report does not establish a vulnerability in the underlying NEAR blockchain.
Main Service and Network Access Have Different Timelines
After patching the contract vulnerability, NEAR Intents said it expected the protocol and Near.com to resume operations within an hour of its announcement.
That was an expected reopening window rather than confirmation that services had already returned.
Deposits and withdrawals across 11 blockchain networks were expected to remain unavailable for approximately another 12 hours. The affected networks included BSC, Polygon and Optimism.
The staggered timetable means restoring the main service would not immediately restore every supported route. Users could therefore encounter continuing restrictions on specific networks even after broader operations resumed.
The team has pledged full compensation, although the supplied announcement does not detail eligibility, payment timing, or the process for affected users.
Investigator Flags Transfers Toward KuCoin and Bitcoin
Blockchain investigator ZachXBT separately reported irregular outflows from the protocol’s BSC hot wallet.
In a Telegram post, he said stolen funds had been transferred to KuCoin and bridged to Bitcoin.
Those observations provide potential leads for tracing the assets across platforms and networks. They do not establish that KuCoin participated in the exploit or that the exchange has recovered any funds.
The Block said it contacted KuCoin for comment but did not receive an immediate response.
NEAR Intents said it was already working with law enforcement and blockchain analytics platforms to follow the stolen assets. The investigation may clarify the transfer sequence and whether funds remain accessible for recovery.
The incident comes shortly after NEAR Intents reported surpassing $25 billion in lifetime platform volume.
It also arrives just days after Bitwise launched its NEAR exchange-traded fund, trading under the ticker NRR.
At the time of the source report, NEAR traded around $5.00, down 9% on the day. The declines coincided with the exploit announcement, although the supplied report does not isolate the incident’s effect from broader market conditions.
Compensation and Post-Mortem Remain Key Next Steps
The immediate priorities are restoring affected services, establishing the final loss amount, and implementing the promised compensation.
A patched vulnerability addresses the identified flaw, but the forthcoming post-mortem will be important for understanding how it occurred and what additional safeguards the team introduces.
Until further updates arrive, the recovery timetable and reimbursement process remain unresolved details of NEAR Intents’ response.
