NEAR Intents hit by $3.8 million exploit as crypto's rough year of hacks continues
Reported by CoinDesk · AI-assisted summary by ChikoCorp AI News Desk
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Summary
NEAR Intents experienced a security exploit on October 1, 2026, resulting in approximately $3.8 million in losses. The exploit was due to a bug involving its Omni deposit and withdrawal system and the NEAR Intents smart contract. The platform paused services, restricted deposits and withdrawals on several blockchains, and pledged to reimburse all affected funds. NEAR Intents reported the incident to law enforcement and is working with security firms to trace stolen funds, which were reportedly sent to the KuCoin exchange and converted into bitcoin.
Why it matters
The incident underscores ongoing security challenges in the crypto industry, adding to a series of large hacks this year. It affects NEAR Intents’ cross-chain trading infrastructure, which simplifies swaps by having independent solvers compete to fulfill user swaps. The exploit disrupted services on multiple blockchains, impacting user access to deposits and withdrawals.
Key context
NEAR Intents facilitates cross-chain trading without users needing to select bridges or exchanges manually, having processed over $30 billion in volume across 35 blockchains. The vulnerability related to its Omni system and smart contract has since been patched. The native token NEAR experienced a roughly 6% price decline following the disclosure, although the exploit did not directly impact the NEAR Protocol blockchain itself. The hack follows a year marked by major crypto security breaches, including large losses at Bitget, Liquid Network, Drift, and Kelp.
Key numbers and entities
The exploit caused approximately $3.8 million in losses. NEAR Intents halted deposits and withdrawals on multiple blockchains including BNB Smart Chain, Polygon, TON, Optimism, Avalanche, Stellar, Monad, X Layer, ADI, Scroll, and Plasma. The stolen funds were sent to KuCoin and converted into bitcoin. NEAR token was down about 6% around the incident time. Other recent hacks in 2026 involved Bitget ($350 million stolen), Liquid Network ($320 million), Drift ($295 million), and Kelp ($293 million).
What remains unclear
The specific technical details of the Omni system bug and how it allowed the exploit are not fully elaborated. The report does not confirm whether the stolen funds have been partially or fully recovered. The timeline for the full resumption of all platform services and deposits/withdrawals on affected blockchains remains uncertain.