Crypto: Near Intents Recovers $3.8 Million Stolen by Hacker

Return to sender. Near Intents has recovered the full $3.8 million stolen during the exploitation of its cross-chain swap service. The funds were returned less than two days after Alex Shevchenko, the project's CEO, publicly stated that the team knew the identity of the attacker. Near Intents has now concluded its internal investigation. However, any potential action taken by authorities remains separate from this decision.

Key Points

• The entire $3.8 million stolen was returned less than two days after the attack.
• Alex Shevchenko had given the perpetrator 48 hours to return the funds.
• A flaw in the interaction between the Omni layer and the main contract allowed the diversion.
• Two days prior, Near Intents had blocked $50 million related to the Bitget hack.

Near Intents Recovers $3.8 Million Stolen

< < The funds from the NEAR Intents hack, amounting to $3.8 million, have been fully returned. We are ending the investigation > >, announced Alex Shevchenko on X.

The day before, the CEO had published compatible return addresses for Bitcoin, Ethereum EVM networks, BNB Chain, and Solana. His message was directed straight at the attacker: < < We have identified you, sir > >. The team then granted him 48 hours to return the assets before proceeding with further actions.

Alex Shevchenko presented this possibility as a last chance to follow a responsible disclosure process, which involves reporting a vulnerability to developers and going through a reward program rather than exploiting it.

A message attached to a transaction and presented as coming from the hacker later confirmed the return.

< < We have returned all the funds, we were in the wrong. > > Onchain message attributed to the exploit author and relayed by Alex Shevchenko -- Source: Decrypt

The statement also thanks the team for their cordiality and invites security researchers to use bug bounty programs. On his part, onchain investigator ZachXBT had traced part of the funds to KuCoin, before their conversion and transfer to Bitcoin. This passage through a centralized platform may have facilitated the identification work, without proving the identity of the account user by itself.

A Flaw Between the Omni Layer and the Main Contract

Near Intents had halted its service after detecting a flaw in how its Omni deposit and withdrawal layer communicated with its main contract. This weakness allowed the attacker to withdraw approximately $3.8 million.

The team had reported the incident to the authorities and promised to fully reimburse the affected users. The return of all funds now reduces the direct financial exposure of the protocol.

Near Intents allows exchanging assets between 35 blockchains. The user specifies the desired outcome, and then different market makers compete to execute the operation. According to the service's data, over $30 billion in swaps have been processed since its launch.

The incident comes after a busy week. Two days before the exploitation, Near Intents had blocked a conversion attempt involving over $50 million linked to the Bitget hack, estimated at $387.5 million. Bitget and the analytics firm Elliptic have linked this attack to North Korean actors.

Full returns remain rare, though not unprecedented. In 2021, the author of the Poly Network hack returned most of the $611 million stolen. In 2023, the attacker of Euler Finance also returned nearly all the loot. In the case of Near Intents, the tracing of the funds and the public assertion that the author had been identified seem to have expedited the resolution.

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