NEAR Intents Loses $3.8M in Exploit, Freezes 11 Networks

NEAR Intents, the cross-chain trading platform that lets users and AI agents state a trade rather than execute one, lost about $3.8 million in an exploit and suspended deposits and withdrawals across eleven blockchain networks, Coincentral reported.

The platform said the incident stemmed from a bug in how its Omni deposit and withdrawal infrastructure interacted with the NEAR Intents smart contract. The flaw has been patched, and the team pledged that all affected users will be reimbursed in full. U.today reported that the official confirmation, published on October 1, 2026, sent the native NEAR token down 7.5% within minutes to a local low of $4.76 before a partial rebound to $4.84.

Key facts

• Roughly $3.8 million was lost in the exploit, which NEAR Intents described as a bug in the Omni deposit and withdrawal system interacting with its smart contract.
• Deposits and withdrawals were frozen on eleven networks: BNB Smart Chain, Polygon, Optimism, Avalanche, Stellar, TON, Monad, X Layer, ADI, Scroll and Plasma.
• Blockchain investigator ZachXBT traced the stolen assets to the exchange KuCoin, from which they were bridged into bitcoin.
• Coincentral reported the NEAR token fell about 6% to 6.7% over the 24 hours after the exploit, trading near $4.96.
• Per U.today, NEAR Intents had days earlier announced that its SHIELD security system blocked $50 million in transactions linked to laundering after the Bitget exchange hack.

An internal flaw, not an external breach

The attack began with unusual withdrawals from a BNB Chain hot wallet tied to NEAR Intents, according to ZachXBT’s account on Telegram. Core services were expected back within about an hour, but cross-chain deposits and withdrawals needed longer. U.today reported they would stay suspended for roughly twelve more hours while Omni completed its fixes, and that funds held inside the system can be converted safely once service returns.

The point stands out because the two reports emphasise different things: Coincentral frames the incident around the halted networks and the reimbursement promise, while U.today stresses that an external security win days earlier offered no protection against an internal integration error. Both accounts agree on the loss figure, the Omni connection and the route to KuCoin and bitcoin, and both note that law enforcement and blockchain analytics firms have been brought into the investigation. The Block said it contacted KuCoin for comment and had not received a response at the time of reporting.

Why it matters

NEAR Intents says it has processed more than $30 billion in volume across 35 blockchains, which places it among the larger chain-abstraction platforms in active use, and its stated goal is to serve as a financial layer for automated agents that transact without manual signing. A flaw at an integration point with a conventional custody system therefore reaches further than a single balance sheet: solvers, market makers and users who parked assets on the eleven paused networks all face delays, regardless of how quickly the contract itself was fixed.

The timing compounded the damage. The newly launched Bitwise NEAR exchange-traded fund, which began trading two days before the exploit, fell about 6.4% and erased gains from the prior day. The incident also lands in a heavy year for crypto security, following the Bitget exploit above $350 million the previous week and earlier incidents involving Liquid Network, Drift and Kelp, according to DefiLlama data cited by Coincentral. For comparison, NEAR Intents announced crossing $25 billion in lifetime volume about six weeks before the attack.

What to watch

NEAR Intents has said it will publish a post-mortem report in the coming days covering both the cause and its response, which should clarify how far the Omni integration flaw extended. The restoration of deposits and withdrawals on the eleven networks, and confirmation that reimbursements have reached affected users, are the next verifiable checkpoints.

The figures above describe past price moves and are not a forecast. This is not financial advice, and crypto markets are volatile and uncertain.

Disclaimer: This article is for information only and is not investment, financial or trading advice. Cryptocurrency prices are highly volatile. Always do your own research.

Sources: CoinCentral, U.today