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ZEC $1,375 NEAR Intents Bug Sends $3.8M Racing Across Crypto Networks
A cross-chain trading protocol bug led to a $3.8 million loss, with stolen funds quickly moved to an exchange and bridged to Bitcoin, the team says.
Key takeaways
- Full loss covered. NEAR Intents has pledged to compensate all users for the full $3.8 million lost in the exploit.
- Funds moved quickly. Stolen USDT was sent to a crypto exchange and bridged to Bitcoin within minutes of each transfer.
- 11 chains paused. Deposits and withdrawals for 11 blockchain networks are unavailable for roughly 12 hours for infrastructure repairs.
What happened
On the morning of October 1, 2026, cross-chain trading protocol NEAR Intents detected a security incident and paused all platform operations. The team identified the root cause as a bug in the interaction between its Omni deposit and withdrawal infrastructure and the NEAR Intents smart contract, which allowed an attacker to drain roughly $3.8 million in USDT from the protocol's BNB Chain HOT Bridge treasury address. The contract-side vulnerability has been patched, and core services were projected to resume within an hour of the incident being discovered.
Why it matters
The exploit underscores persistent security risks for cross-chain protocols that rely on interconnected infrastructure to support deposits and withdrawals across dozens of networks. NEAR Intents has engaged law enforcement and third-party security and blockchain analytics firms to trace the stolen funds, which were moved to a crypto exchange and bridged to Bitcoin shortly after the exploit.
What is still unclear
- The exact final destination of the stolen $3.8 million is unconfirmed, as independent verification of onchain investigator ZachXBT's claim that funds were sent to Kucoin and bridged to Bitcoin has not been completed.
Questions readers ask
Will NEAR Intents reimburse users for the $3.8 million loss?
Yes, the NEAR Intents team has confirmed it will cover the full $3.8 million in lost funds. Users holding assets from affected networks in HOT Wallet or on near.com will be able to convert them once core platform services are restored.
Which crypto networks are impacted by the NEAR Intents outage?
Deposits and withdrawals are paused for 11 networks: BNB Chain, Polygon, TON, Optimism, Avalanche, Stellar, Monad, LayerX, Adi, Scroll and Plasma, for approximately 12 hours while Omni infrastructure repairs are completed.
What caused the NEAR Intents $3.8 million exploit?
The loss was triggered by a bug in the interaction between NEAR Intents' Omni deposit and withdrawal infrastructure and its smart contract, which has since been patched.
