NEAR Intents lead says $3.8M exploiter identified, gives 48 hours to return funds

Alex Shevchenko, who leads cross-chain protocol NEAR Intents, said the identity of the attacker who stole about $3.8 million has been identified and demanded the funds be returned within 48 hours, according to The Defiant. In a post on X, Shevchenko said, "We have identified you," and called for the funds to be sent back to the Bitcoin, BNB Chain and Ethereum, and Solana addresses he disclosed. He added, "You likely know the proper procedure for responsibly disclosing a vulnerability when you find one," and said the opportunity to use that process would remain open for only 48 more hours. The Defiant also reported the stolen funds had not yet been deposited into any of the three addresses disclosed by Shevchenko. NEAR Intents has not released details on the attacker's identity, the exploit transactions, or a breakdown of the affected assets. The protocol had previously said the hack stemmed from a bug in interactions between Omni's deposit and withdrawal infrastructure and the NEAR Intents smart contract.