A flaw in the layer that moves money in and out let an attacker take roughly $3.8 million from NEAR Intents. The company says it reported the hack to law enforcement and fixed the contract-side hole within about an hour, after which core services came back online. But the service shut down briefly on Thursday, and deposits and withdrawals on 11 networks, including BNB Chain, Polygon, and Optimism, stayed down another 12 hours while the rest of the fix went in. Every affected user will get paid back in full.
The stolen funds were tracked by ZachXBT to KuCoin, where they were turned into bitcoin. A full report is expected soon, according to the team. The firm has acknowledged the issue openly, contacted law enforcement, and vowed to compensate its customers. Among crypto breaches, that response counts as close to perfect.
How the Hack Went Down
NEAR Intents serves as a swapping tool for moving crypto between different blockchains while keeping transactions private. It has grown into a major player during the privacy boom, having processed over $30 billion in swaps across 35 networks. The problem lay in the layer responsible for bringing money in and out, and how it communicated with the main contract storing user funds.
The repair arrived quickly. The contract-side gap was sealed within roughly an hour. Core services resumed within that interval. Payments on 11 networks remained halted for another 12 hours as the rest of the fix took hold. The firm has stated that all affected users will be repaid in full.
Comparing This Hack to Others
A few people are comparing this to a “bullish hack”, similar to the ZCash exploit that was discovered by its own team. The logic behind the comparison rests on what happened: the service detected the flaw, shut down immediately, fixed it within an hour, identified the issue openly, contacted law enforcement, and vowed to make users whole again. Judged against how hacks usually unfold, this response comes as close as possible to the most favorable outcome for everyone involved.
Compare it to other recent exploits:
- Kelp DAO was exploited for hundreds of millions.
- Bitget lost $387.5 million and froze withdrawals for four days.
- MetaMask pulled validators offline and has said almost nothing since.
NEAR Intents didn’t do any of those things. The hack was quick, limited in scope, and caused little harm.
The Numbers From the Rest of the Market
Crypto majors rallied 3-4% as oil and bonds cooled. BTC is at $86,400. ETH is at $2,740. SOL is at $122. HYPE is at $91. ZEC is at $1,380. The top alt movers include SKY, AAVE, ZRO and VVV.
Oil fell 4% to $89. Gold rose 0.3% to $4,220. Stock futures are green as oil and bonds fall. The Dow is up 0.6%. Nasdaq is up 0.7%.
The proposal from the SEC would permit investment advisers and funds to own crypto directly, including keeping the keys themselves when there is no custodian available. The plan spans 760 pages and allows state trust companies to serve as custodians as well. It also requires quarterly checks to see if a custodian has become available.
A court battle over Illinois’ crypto tax has pushed back the collection deadline by six months, with the state agreeing to the postponement. Meanwhile, Trump is planning a third dinner for his memecoin’s biggest backers, set for November 22 at his Virginia golf club. The arrangement grants special treatment: the top 185 gain entry, the top 29 receive a separate reception, and the top four take home an 18-karat gold watch.
Shareholders gave Evernorth approval for its Nasdaq listing, which makes it the biggest public firm built solely around XRP. Trading closes October 7, then begins again as XRPN on October 8, carrying about 473 million XRP valued at roughly $705 million.
This month, USDT is returning to Bitcoin via Utexo, a licensed Tether-backed firm authorized to issue it there. The system behind it, RGB, enables users to keep dollars and bitcoin in a single wallet. Lightning support is slated for the next stage.
Thursday marked the launch of Fiserv’s digital asset platform, beginning with Roughrider Coin from the Bank of North Dakota, which is state-owned.
The ETFs and Corporate Treasuries
Thursday brought $103M in fresh buying into the Bitcoin ETFs while the ETH ETFs lost $55M. Solana suffered $1.1M in outflows.
Meme leaders were green up 2-5%. DOGE is up 2%. SHIB is up 2%. PEPE is up 2%. PENGU is up 2%. TRUMP is up 4%. SPX is up 2%. BONK is up 4%.
The Robinhood chain’s leaders showed a split picture: Pons dropped 2% to reach $360M, while AI fell 2% to land at $154M. But Cashcat rose 3% to $174M, and three others climbed too — Genie went up 500%, Shroom rose 24%, and Moo advanced 80%, with all three leading the top movers.
Among Solana’s top movers, www rose +135x, while Hooked gained +180%, Cards added +26%, and Sapling climbed +170x.
Airdrops and Protocols
Pump led the onchain protocols in revenue with $2.62M, while Hyperliquid sits at $1.44M, Stonk is at $940k, and Collector Crypt rounds out the list at $750k.
zkAPI is a system introduced by the Ethereum Foundation that lets people pay for AI services while keeping their identity hidden from the provider. Users make a single deposit of ETH or USDC, then show proof of having made it without exposing which specific deposit belongs to them. The tool is currently up and running on Ethereum, and it was constructed using the Open Anonymity Project.
NFTs and the CryptoPunk Sale
The NFT leaders were not all doing well. Punks held steady at 33 ETH. BAYC fell by 1%, sitting at 6.18 ETH. Pudgy was down too, slipping to 3 ETH with a decline of 7%.
Quotrons are up 6%. OTC Desks are up 14%.
The only 7-Trait CryptoPunk sold for about $5.9M on Gondi. The full sale details were not disclosed overnight.
NEAR’s Own Reaction
The Bitwise NEAR ETF’s shares fell more than 7%, while NEAR itself fell nearly 9%. The fund had just launched two days earlier, and its first week included a hack of the very product Bitwise had cited as evidence the network was expanding.
The outcome for Near will depend entirely on how investors interpret it. The firm uncovered the flaw, acted swiftly to correct it, and pledged repayment to all parties involved. In an industry where security breaches frequently haunt projects for years, that trio of actions stands out. Whether the market regards it as a success is a matter only time can resolve.
Source material: “Morning Minute: NEAR Intents Hacked for $3.8M – Was It A Bullish Hack?,” Decrypt.
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