NEAR Recovers $3.8M Stolen in Hack, Blast Shuts Down L2, Bitcoin ETFs See $103M Inflow

NEAR Intents has recovered the full $3.8 million stolen during a Thursday security breach, general manager Alex Shevchenko confirmed on Friday via X. The cross-chain trading protocol had identified the individual responsible and issued a 48-hour ultimatum under a "responsible disclosure" framework, demanding the return of funds. The full recovery marks a rare successful resolution to a DeFi exploit and prompted Shevchenko to urge would-be attackers to "use bug bounties instead of disrupting the services." NEAR Intents is now closing its investigation into the incident.

Blast, the Ethereum layer-2 network launched by Blur founder Tieshun "Pacman" Roquerre in 2023, is winding down operations after determining that operating costs consistently outpaced revenue. The network stated there is no "credible path" to economic sustainability and is directing users to withdraw assets to Ethereum mainnet. Blast will shorten its withdrawal delay to 24 hours, though withdrawals will be temporarily paused for approximately one week while the protocol unwinds positions held through Lido. Users have until October 26 to withdraw through Blast's interface, after which assets will remain accessible only via direct interaction with the network's bridge contracts. Blast's DeFi total value locked has collapsed more than 98% from its peak of roughly $2.2 billion in June 2024, as the NFT-fueled momentum that originally attracted over $2 billion in deposits before its February 2024 mainnet launch faded.

US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds opened October with $102.7 million in net inflows on Thursday, reversing Wednesday's $148.7 million in net outflows, according to SoSoValue data. The first-day inflow follows Bitcoin ETFs' strongest quarter of 2026 and pushed combined net assets to $109.3 billion. The return to positive flows has been framed by market participants as an encouraging start to a period some analysts call "Uptober," reflecting historically bullish October performance for Bitcoin and broader crypto markets.