NEAR Intents' risk system SHIELD detected and blocked most of more than $50 million in attempted transfers tied to the September 24 hack of the Bitget exchange, the company said. About $503,000 was frozen mid-execution, but roughly $166,000 still passed through the platform.
How SHIELD flagged the transfers
SHIELD, NEAR Intents' internal risk monitoring tool, picked up the suspicious activity as the funds moved. It stopped the bulk of the transfers before they could complete. The system's intervention meant that only a small fraction of the $50 million-plus total actually made it through.
According to Alex Shevchenko, general manager of NEAR Intents, the freeze was executed while the transactions were still in progress. "We were able to freeze about $503,000 mid-execution," he said, adding that roughly $166,000 slipped past despite the block.
The incident highlights the cat-and-mouse nature of crypto security. Hackers try to move stolen funds quickly across chains and protocols; risk systems try to catch them in flight. In this case, SHIELD caught most of it.
What got through and what didn't
The $166,000 that passed through NEAR Intents is a small slice of the overall $50 million in attempted transfers. That money is now out of reach for the platform's freeze mechanism. The remaining funds—more than $50 million—were either blocked outright or never made it to the execution stage.
NEAR Intents didn't specify which tokens or chains were involved, nor did it name the attackers. The Bitget hack itself remains under investigation, and the exchange has not publicly detailed how the breach occurred.
Bitget's hack and the broader fallout
Bitget, a major crypto exchange, disclosed the September 24 hack but has released limited information about the scope and method. The stolen funds appear to have been routed through multiple protocols, including NEAR Intents, in an attempt to obscure their origin.
NEAR Intents' SHIELD system is designed for exactly this scenario: detecting and halting illicit transfers in real time. Its partial success here—blocking the majority but not all—shows both the promise and the limits of such tools.
What comes next
NEAR Intents hasn't said whether it will pursue the $166,000 that got away or coordinate with law enforcement. Bitget, for its part, is still working to trace the stolen assets. The exchange has not announced a reimbursement plan for affected users.
For now, the incident serves as a reminder that even advanced risk systems can't catch everything. The $166,000 that slipped through is a rounding error next to the $50 million total, but it's still money that won't be coming back.
NEAR Intents declined to comment on whether SHIELD's parameters will be adjusted. Bitget did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
