The cross-chain trading platform NEAR Intents has reported a security breach resulting in losses estimated at $3.8 million. This incident has led the platform to halt services and restrict deposits and withdrawals across multiple blockchains.
According to NEAR Intents, the exploit stemmed from a flaw in the interaction between its Omni deposit and withdrawal system and the platform's smart contract. The company has since fixed the vulnerability and committed to fully reimbursing the affected users.
NEAR Intents aims to streamline cross-chain trading by allowing users to specify their desired swaps, while independent market makers, referred to as solvers, work behind the scenes to execute these trades. The platform claims to have facilitated over $30 billion in trading volume across 35 different blockchains.
At the time of reporting, the price of NEAR, the native token associated with NEAR Intents, was approximately $4.85, reflecting a decline of around 6% in the preceding 24 hours. It is important to note that the vulnerability was related to the cross-chain infrastructure rather than the NEAR Protocol blockchain itself.
This incident adds to a troubling trend in the cryptocurrency space, which has experienced a string of significant security breaches this year. Just last week, crypto exchange Bitget reported a hack that resulted in the theft of over $350 million. Other notable incidents include a $320 million exploit on the Liquid Network and a $295 million breach involving Drift, according to data from DefiLlama.
NEAR Intents has reported the breach to law enforcement and is collaborating with security and blockchain analytics companies to trace the stolen funds. Blockchain investigator ZachXBT noted that the exploit began with unusual withdrawals from a hot wallet associated with NEAR Intents on the BNB Chain. The stolen assets were subsequently transferred to the KuCoin exchange and converted into Bitcoin.
While NEAR Intents anticipates a swift resumption of core services, deposits and withdrawals on several networks will remain suspended for a longer duration as necessary fixes are implemented. A status update indicated ongoing issues with networks including BNB Smart Chain, Polygon, and Avalanche, among others.