A hacking group has managed to steal around $600 million in cryptocurrency from a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform called Poly Network after exploiting one of its vulnerabilities. As noted in a letter sent to the hackers by Poly Network, this is the largest amount that has ever been stolen in DeFi history.
“The money you stole are from tens of thousands of crypto community members… you should talk to us to work out a solution,” Poly Network noted in a seemingly useless attempt at guilting the hackers into returning a portion of the coins that were pillaged.
Strangely, the hackers appear to be complying, as Poly Network has begun receiving some of its money back in several of the wallet addresses that were provided to the attackers. The amount received so far is only $260 million, however, less than half of the $600 million that was originally stolen.
Poly Network has urged major cryptocurrency exchanges and other members of the crypto ecosystem to blacklist the assets coming from the hackers’ addresses. Binance founder Changpeng Zhao acknowledged the attack in a tweet yesterday, noting that he is working with security partners to help despite the strict nature of blockchains.
— Poly Network (@PolyNetwork2) August 10, 2021
$260 million (As of 11 Aug 04:18:39 PM +UTC) of assets had been returned:
— Poly Network (@PolyNetwork2) August 11, 2021
Ethereum: $3.3M
BSC: $256M
Polygon: $1M
The remainings are $269M on Ethereum, $84M on Polygon
We are aware of the https://t.co/IgGJ0598Q0 exploit that occurred today. While no one controls BSC (or ETH), we are coordinating with all our security partners to proactively help. There are no guarantees. We will do as much as we can. Stay #SAFU. 🙏 https://t.co/TG0dKPapQT
— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) August 10, 2021
Regulators have increased their scrutiny of crypto platforms as investors pour billions of dollars into digital currencies. Senator Elizabeth Warren recently asked SEC Chair Gary Gensler to investigate the SEC’s ability to oversee trading on crypto platforms.
Source: Poly Network (via CNN)