NEAR Intents recovers $3.8M after 48-hour ultimatum

NEAR Intents said Friday it recovered the full $3.8 million taken in a security breach after giving the exploiter 48 hours to return the funds. General manager Alex Shevchenko said the team was ending its investigation, according to Cointelegraph’s report on the recovery.

How did NEAR Intents set the deadline?

Shevchenko said the team had identified the person behind the breach and offered a final chance to return the funds under responsible disclosure. He shared wallet addresses for Bitcoin, BNB and Solana, and set a 48-hour window, Cointelegraph reported.

NEAR Intents had paused services after finding a bug in how Omni’s deposit and withdrawal infrastructure interacted with its smart contract. Its preliminary investigation put the loss at $3.8 million and said affected users would be compensated in full.

How did the exploiter return the money?

Shevchenko announced the return on X, saying the full sum had been sent back. Decrypt reported that an on-chain message shared by Shevchenko appeared to come from the exploiter and said the funds had been returned, according to Decrypt’s account.

The message also said the sender had been in the wrong and urged others to use bug bounties, Decrypt reported. Blockchain investigator ZachXBT had said funds from the breach were transferred to KuCoin and bridged to Bitcoin, according to Cointelegraph.

What happens after the recovery?

NEAR Intents said it was stopping the investigation after the funds came back. Shevchenko also urged people to use bug bounty programs instead of disrupting the service, according to his statement cited by Cointelegraph.

Source material

• Cointelegraph’s report on the recovery — cointelegraph.com
• Decrypt’s account — decrypt.co