NEAR Intents Recovers $3.8M After Contract Exploit
NEAR Intents recovered all $3.8 million taken in an exploit within 36 hours of discovering the incident. A flaw in its smart contract meant failed deposits could be refunded while still being credited to the protocol’s internal ledger, creating false balances across 23 transactions. The attacker withdrew real assets between September 29 and October 1, using Omni cross-chain infrastructure to move them. NEAR Intents said the vulnerability was in its own contract, not Omni. The team removed the affected deposit notification feature, added balance monitoring and automatic pause mechanisms, and reimbursed affected users. It also paid a $300,000 bounty to a researcher who reported another critical flaw in the same functionality on October 7. NEAR Intents says the system has returned to normal.
Neutral
The incident raises short-term concerns about smart contract security and could weigh on sentiment toward NEAR and related projects. However, the stolen funds were recovered, affected users were reimbursed, and NEAR Intents has removed the vulnerable feature and added monitoring and automatic pause controls. These steps limit the immediate financial impact and reduce some ongoing risk. Traders may still watch for further disclosures, renewed exploits, or signs of disruption, but the available information does not establish a direct, lasting effect on NEAR’s token price. The likely price impact is therefore neutral, with sentiment potentially improving if the security changes prove effective.