NEAR Protocol’s token has slipped below the 5-dollar mark after a 3.8 million USDT exploit involving NEAR Intents, ending one of the strongest September rallies among large-cap altcoins and putting the token’s nearest support zone to the test.
TradingView’s Binance daily chart placed NEAR at 4.938, down 7.55% on the day, after trading as high as 5.540 and as low as 4.742 — a swing of more than 15% from peak to trough.
## What happened with NEAR Intents
NEAR Intents said the incident was caused by a bug in the interaction between its Omni deposit and withdrawal infrastructure and the platform’s smart contract. The team paused services, patched the contract-side vulnerability, and committed to reimbursing affected users in full.
Two distinctions matter for token holders. First, the disruption affected cross-chain infrastructure associated with NEAR Intents rather than the NEAR Protocol blockchain itself, which continued operating normally. Second, the team reported the incident to law enforcement and engaged security and blockchain analytics firms to trace the funds.
The selloff that followed was as much about positioning as about the incident. NEAR had climbed from the mid-2-dollar range in early September to the 5.50 area — a gain of well over 100% — leaving the token stretched and vulnerable to any excuse for profit-taking.
## The technical picture after the drop
The Murrey Math indicator places NEAR below its 5.078 overshoot level after the price briefly moved beyond the 5.469 extreme-overshoot line. Both now sit above the market, forming the first hurdles for any recovery.
The next marked daily level below is 4.688, and the session low of 4.742 held just above it, making the 4.69 to 4.74 area the nearest chart-based support zone. A break there opens 4.297, followed by 3.906.
On the 4-hour chart, NEAR sits below the Bollinger Bands’ middle line at 5.022, with the upper band at 5.468 and the lower at 4.577. Reclaiming 5.02 would also put the token back above the round 5-dollar level, though the daily 5.078 line would remain an obstacle above it. Notably, the 4-hour upper band almost exactly matches the daily Murrey level at 5.47, placing two independent references at the same price near the recent highs.
The Awesome Oscillator remains positive at 0.090 but printed a red histogram bar — momentum above zero, weakening. The daily Aroon still shows Aroon Up at 71.43% and Aroon Down at 0%, meaning recent highs remain dominant within the lookback window even as the decline interrupts the advance.
## Liquidation clusters map the path
CoinGlass’s one-week liquidation heatmap shows a bright cluster around 5.05 to 5.10 just above the market, with heavier concentrations at 5.50 and across 5.60 to 5.70. Below, bands sit at 4.70 to 4.80 — overlapping the daily support zone — followed by more near 4.60 and 4.45 to 4.50.
The recovery path therefore runs through 5.02 to 5.10 before the 5.47 to 5.54 region. The downside path starts at 4.69 to 4.74, then the lower Bollinger Band near 4.58.
## Analysts still lean constructive
Rekt Capital noted in an Oct. 1 post that NEAR had rallied roughly 265% since a major trend reversal and recorded a monthly close above its macro downtrend for the first time in years. He expects the token to attempt a retest of that former downtrend as support — a pattern that, if it holds, historically precedes continuation. His monthly chart marks wider levels at approximately 3.798 and 5.978.
Trader CW separately argued that accumulation signals persisted and that repeated replenishment of momentum kept a sustained rally possible. Both views remain conditional while NEAR trades below 5 dollars.
## The Bitwise wildcard
The pullback also comes just as a new US investment vehicle arrives. Bitwise announced the launch of the Bitwise NEAR ETF under the ticker NRR, the first spot NEAR ETP in the United States, giving institutional investors regulated exposure to the token for the first time.
The combination is unusual: a fundamentally driven demand catalyst arriving in the same week as a security scare tied to peripheral infrastructure. If the 4.69 to 4.74 zone holds and the retest of the macro downtrend succeeds, the September breakout thesis remains intact with new institutional plumbing behind it. A loss of 4.69, by contrast, would likely accelerate toward the 4.58 band and reset the timeline — and with the Intents reimbursement pledge now public, the burden of proof shifts back to the buyers.
3.8M exploit and a 7.5% dump on a chain that never stopped producing blocks. if 4.69 gives way that says more about the 100% september run than the hacker
4.938 close with a 4.742 low means the flush already tested the zone once. second visits to a shelf like that usually break it
everyone panic sold before noticing the exploit was in NEAR Intents cross chain infra, not the L1 itself. chain never stopped block production. classic shoot first situation
‘engaged analytics firms to trace the funds’ = funds gone. hope affected users actually see that reimbursement
chain running fine never mattered for price, see every outage-free solana week that still dumped. 4.69 is purely about where september longs took profit
4.69 held so far but NEAR went from mid 2s to 5.5 in a month, there is a LOT of air below this range if 4.7 breaks
full reimbursement commitment already announced and they patched the omni bridge bug. i bought the 4.9 dip, seems overdone for 3.8M usdt
bought next to you at 4.92. reimbursement or not, intents volume bleeds for weeks after stuff like this, not sure the dip thesis prices that in
fee bleed is my worry too. intents was supposed to be the growth line for NEAR this cycle, one exploit and that story is on pause for a quarter
exactly this. the whole NEAR growth story this cycle was intents volume. even with full reimbursement the fee line stalls for a quarter minimum
stacked a small bid at 4.35 for exactly that reason. if intents volume keeps bleeding after the 3.8M exploit the fee narrative stalls out and the dip stops being cheap
they paused and patched within hours instead of a day of silence, that response speed says more about the team than the 3.8M does
3.8M exploit on the intents layer and the L1 itself drops 7.5%. chain ran fine the whole time but holders pay the bill, every time
holders pay the bill every time, true, but 7.5% for a 3.8M cross-chain bug is still overdone. alts just wanted an excuse to hand back the september gains
Went from mid 2 dollars to 5.50 in a month. Any excuse was going to trigger profit taking. 4.69 is the line, below that 4.30 comes fast.
4h lower bollinger sits at 4.577 so even the flush case has a floor right under that zone
agreed on 4.30 coming fast if 4.69 breaks, that shelf is where the september run actually started. want fills there, not chasing 4.9
the 4.30 shelf is also where the run actually basing started, so yes air below but a real floor too. the 5.50 crowd was clearly just waiting on an excuse
down 7.55% in a day and somehow still one of the better september performers. crypto memory is 3 days long