On Wednesday, the hacker responsible for the largest decentralised finance network theft in history returned over $260 million of the more than $600 million in cryptocurrency that was stolen.
Poly Network, a “DeFi” technology that operates across blockchains, stated the attacker has so far returned $256 million in BSC, $1 million from Polygon, and $3.3 million in Ethereum in a statement.
There is still $269 million in Ethereum and $84 million in Polygon that needs to be refunded, according to Poly Network.
The corporation blamed the breach on a vulnerability in contract calls that was exploited. Poly Network said that the vulnerability “was not caused by the solitary keeper as rumored.”
Researchers online tied the attack to a Poly Network privileged contract called the “EthCrossChainManager.” Along with the money, the hacker included a three-part Q&A in which they explained some of their reasons.
The attacker said they discovered a hole in Poly Network’s system and debated what to do next, eventually deciding to steal the money and transfer it to another account, according to a message posted by Elliptic co-founder Tom Robinson.
They attempted to portray their activities as altruistic, claiming that they were attempting to expose the weakness before “some insider” exploited it.
Because they employed anonymous email addresses and IP addresses, they claim to be 100% safe.
“The Poly Network system is a good one. It’s one of the most difficult attacks a hacker can undertake. To overcome any insiders or hackers, I had to be quick “the hacker stated.
“I didn’t want to frighten anyone in the crypto community. So I decided to disregard shitcoins so that no one would be concerned about them dropping to zero. Except for Shib, I kept all of the important tokens and did not sell any of them.”
Because they were dissatisfied with Poly Network’s response to the attack, they finally began to sell or swap stablecoins.
“Before I had a chance to respond, they persuaded others to accuse and detest me!” the attacker explained, adding that they used stablecoins to collect interest on the stolen funds while negotiating with Poly Network.
“Money does not pique my attention! I understand how painful it is for someone to be hacked, but shouldn’t they learn something from those attacks? “they stated
The perpetrator explained that they were taking their time returning the money because they needed to rest, negotiate with Poly Network, and “show” their dignity while concealing their identity.
The attacker wishes to help Poly Network with its security because of its relevance to the cryptocurrency sector, according to the statement.
“The Poly Network is a well-designed system that can handle a larger number of assets. Isn’t it true that they’ve gained a lot of new Twitter followers? “According to the statement. “The suffering they have endured is only momentary, but it will be remembered.”
Poly Network attempted to reply to the audacious attack, which sent shockwaves through the blockchain and cryptocurrency industries. Bitcoin, Ethereum, Neo, Ontology, Elrond, Ziliqa, Binance Smart Chain, Switcheo, and Huobi ECO Chain are among the blockchains that the company works with.
The hacker has been gradually returning the funds since Poly Network issued a statement on Tuesday warning the perpetrator. The firm pleaded with the hacker to refund the funds.
“The sum of money you stole is the largest in Defi history. Any country’s law enforcement will view this as a big economic crime, and you will be pursued “According to the Poly Network team.
“Any additional transactions would be extremely risky for you. The money was stolen from tens of thousands of members of the crypto community, therefore the people.
You should speak with us to come up with a solution. We urge affected blockchain miners and crypto exchanges to blacklist tokens sent from the addresses listed above.”
Miners on affected blockchain and crypto exchanges such as Binance, Tether, Uniswap, HuobiGlobal, OKEx, Circle Pay, and BitGo have been asked to prohibit any tokens sent from these addresses
In response to the incident, Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino stated the platform froze $33 million
.DeFi has “become a main target for fraudsters,” according to Hank Schless, a senior manager at Lookout. Attacks against DeFi generated an all-time high amount of losses in the first half of 2021, according to a recent analysis from CipherTrace.
Between January and July of this year, fraudsters caused the DeFi community to lose a record $474 million
Poly Network’s attack is larger than earlier high-profile cryptocurrency hacks such as Coincheck’s $550 million hack in 2018 and Mt. Gox’s $400 million hack in 2014
