NEAR Intents suffered a security vulnerability attack on Thursday, resulting in losses of approximately $3.8 million, which prompted this cross-chain trading platform to suspend services and also restricted deposits and withdrawals on multiple blockchains.

The project attributed this attack to a vulnerability related to its Omni system and smart contracts, and stated that this vulnerability has been patched. They pledged to compensate the affected funds in full.

NEAR Intents indicates that this incident has been reported to the law enforcement authorities, and a security company has been hired to trace the flow of funds. An investigator stated that the stolen funds were transferred to KuCoin, and then exchanged for Bitcoin.

Blockchain protocol NEAR Intents suffered a security attack on Thursday, resulting in losses of approximately $3.8 million. This forced the platform to suspend services and temporarily shut down deposit and withdrawal functions on multiple blockchains.

The project party stated that this incident was caused by a vulnerability in the interaction method between their Omni deposit and withdrawal system and the NEAR Intents smart contract. The vulnerability on the contract side has since been fixed, and NEAR Intents claimed that the affected funds will be fully compensated.

NEAR Intents is designed to simplify cross-chain transactions. It does not require users to choose a bridge, exchange, or route on their own; instead, users specify the exchange they wish to perform, and then independent market makers known as solvers compete in the backend to complete the transaction. The platform's website indicates that it has processed over $30 billion in transaction volume across 35 blockchain networks.

As of press time, the blockchain native token NEAR, which is closely related to NEAR Intents, is trading at $4.9443, representing a decline of about 6% in the past 24 hours. However, the disclosed vulnerabilities pertain to its cross-chain infrastructure, rather than the underlying NEAR Protocol blockchain itself.

This incident has added further strain to an already difficult year for the crypto industry. Just last week, the exchange Bitget was attacked, resulting in the theft of over $350 million in assets. According to DefiLlama data, other significant incidents include Liquid Network, with a loss of about $320 million; Drift, with a loss of $295 million; and Kelp, with a loss of $293 million.

NEAR Intents indicates that the incident has been reported to law enforcement authorities, and efforts are being made in collaboration with security companies and blockchain analysis firms to trace the funds.

Blockchain investigator ZachXBT stated that the attack began with an abnormal withdrawal from a BNB Chain hot wallet that is related to NEAR Intents. He mentioned that the stolen funds were subsequently transferred to the cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin and converted into Bitcoin. At that time, Bitcoin was trading at $83,958.50.