NEAR Intents Recovers $3.8 Million After CEO Ultimatum to Hacker
Crypto platform NEAR Intents successfully recovered $3.8 million in stolen funds within hours after its CEO issued an ultimatum to the hacker, while the NEAR token surged by 4.8%.
A major blockchain drama ended successfully as the trading and clearing platform NEAR Intents announced the recovery of all stolen funds amounting to approximately $3.8 million within hours of the security incident.
The dramatic turnaround occurred after CEO Alex Shevchenko publicly appealed to the hacker, revealing that their identity had been exposed. Shevchenko issued a 48-hour ultimatum to return the funds in exchange for dropping legal action and treating the incident as a "responsible disclosure." The hacker capitulated to the pressure and transferred all funds back before the deadline, leading to the closure of the criminal investigation.
An analysis of the incident revealed that the breach stemmed from a technical synchronization failure with the Omni infrastructure in the smart contracts, primarily affecting USDT tokens on the BNB network. An AI-based security system prevented broader damage, and the team patched the vulnerability within an hour. Following the positive news, the NEAR token surged by about 4.8% to reach a price of approximately $4.91.
Notably, NEAR Intents is considered one of the prominent projects in the DeFi world, processing a monthly transaction volume of over $4 billion. During the current security incident, the management of NEAR Protocol emphasized that the main blockchain network is operating normally and that the native NEAR token was not involved in the technical failure and remained unaffected.
