NEAR Intents Says It Has Identified the Hacker Behind $3.8 Million Exploit

NEAR Intents says it knows who is behind Thursday’s security breach, which drained $3.8 million in user funds. In a post on Friday, general manager Alex Shevchenko told the attacker the team has worked out who he is. He offered a 48-hour window to send the money back under a responsible disclosure arrangement and warned that the offer disappears once the time is up. Shevchenko also shared three wallet addresses where the funds can be returned in Bitcoin, BNB or Solana.

Omni Bug Behind the NEAR Intents Exploit

The protocol paused its services on Thursday after spotting a bug in the way the Omni deposit and withdrawal infrastructure interacts with the NEAR Intents smart contract.

Its early investigation confirmed that $3.8 million in user money was stolen, and the team has pledged to compensate every affected user in full. Meanwhile, blockchain investigator ZachXBT reported that the stolen assets were moved to the KuCoin exchange and then bridged to Bitcoin.