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Highlights
- The hackers have returned nearly all of the US$610+ million stolen from Poly Network on Tuesday according to the token-swapping platform.
- Someone has already taken credit for the hack saying they did it "for fun" adding that they wanted to "expose the vulnerability" in the network.
- Poly Network is a decentralised finance (DeFi) platform that aids peer-to-peer transactions and allows users to transfer or swap tokens across different blockchains.
Hundred of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency had been stolen from the Poly Network in one of the biggest heists in crypto history.
The stolen money included hundreds of millions of dollars in Ethereum, Polygon and BSC stolen from the Poly Network, which facilities peer-to-peer crypto transactions.
The hackers involved in the heist have returned nearly all of the stolen US$610+ million, according to Poly Network - the company at the centre of the hack.
The Poly Network threatened legal action on Tuesday against the hackers and urged the culprits to return the stolen funds.
Someone has already taken credit for the hack saying they did it "for fun" adding that they wanted to "expose the vulnerability", according to digital messages shared by crypto-tracking firm Elliptic and Chainalysis.
How did they do it?
The hackers involved in the heist exploited a vulnerability in the digital contracts to move the digital currencies , according to blockchain forensics company Chainalysis.
A preliminary investigation found the hackers had exploited a vulnerability a smart contract that has large amounts of liquidity to allow users to efficiently swap crypto.
According to an analysis of the transactions tweeted by Ethereum programmer, Kelvin Fichter, the hackers appeared to override the blockchain’s smart contract instructions and diverted the funds to three wallet addresses, which were then traced by Poly Network.
At this stage, the culprits remain unidentified, and Reuters could not validate the legitimacy of the messages.
What is the Poly Network?
Poly Network – a lesser-known crypto network – is a decentralised finance (DeFi) platform that facilitates peer-to-peer transactions and allows users to transfer or swap tokens across different blockchains.
Poly Network was launched in August 2020 and was founded by Da Hongfei, a Chinese entrepreneur Da Hongfei. Mr Hongfei is the current chief executive of the blockchain platform, Neo.
Who is the Mystery Hacker?
The hacker claiming to be at the center of the Poly Heist posed has also touted himself as a “white hat” - an ethical hacker.
Messages published by Chainalysis say the self proclaimed “white hat” said he had always planned to return the money.
Some experts remain skeptical, however.
Source: © Ipopba | Megapixl.com
Former FBI veteran Gurvais Grigg who is also Chainanalysis’ chief technology officer, said it was unlikely that white hat hackers would steal such a large sum.
Grigg suggested that the hacker might have returned the crypto because of the difficulties associated with laundering such a large amount of digital currency.
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