The attacker responsible for yesterday’s $600 million hack of decentralized finance (DeFi) interoperability protocol Poly Network sent nearly $5 million worth of crypto back to the project.
Earlier today, Poly Network developers told the hacker (via a message attached to an Ethereum transaction) that they are preparing a multi-signature address controlled by “known Poly addresses.”
They also listed three wallets to which the hacker could return the funds.
About an hour later, they followed up with a transaction of 23.88 BTCB (a token pegged to the price of Bitcoin that works on the Binance Smart Chain network), worth roughly $1.103 million at current prices.
Lastly, the hacker just sent over $2.65 million to the Ethereum wallet provided by Poly Network (259 billion Shiba Inu tokens and 616,000 Fei USD stablecoins).
Poly Network hacker ‘to return the fund!’
At 12 am EST, the hacker also announced that they are “Ready to return the fund!” via a message in an Ethereum transaction they sent to themselves.
Shortly after, they said “Failed to contact the Poly. I need a secured multisig wallet from you” via a similar method. In their response, Poly Network developers published the three aforementioned addresses for the hacker to return the stolen funds to.
Multi-chain interoperability protocol Poly Network fell victim to an exploit today, resulting in the loss of roughly $600 million worth of various cryptocurrencies, the platform's developers revealed.
Important Notice:We are sorry to announce that #PolyNetwork was attacked on @BinanceChain @ethereum and @0xPolygon Assets had been transferred to hacker's following addresses:ETH: 0xC8a65Fadf0e0dDAf421F28FEAb69Bf6E2E589963BSC: 0x0D6e286A7cfD25E0c01fEe9756765D8033B32C71
— Poly Network (@PolyNetwo...
Notably, cybersecurity company Slowmist claimed that it has identified the hacker’s IP and email addresses yesterday.
“The SlowMist security team has discovered the attacker's mailbox, IP, and device fingerprints through on-chain and off-chain tracking, and is tracking possible identity clues related to the Poly Network attacker,” the firm wrote in a post on Weibo yesterday.
Earlier, Poly Network developers also told the hacker that he committed “the biggest hack in DeFi history” and therefore “any country will regard this as a major economic crime and you will be pursued.”
This may be one of the reasons why they have begun returning funds. Still, just $5 million of a $600 million total is minuscule.
Editor's note: This article has been updated to reflect additional returns the Poly Hacker has made since initial publication.
Daily Debrief Newsletter
Start every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.
Energy storage company KULR Technology Group has bought an additional $9 million Bitcoin for its corporate treasury, the company announced Tuesday, part of a recent surge of companies that have been building treasuries of the digital asset.
Publicly traded KULR, which has headquarters in Houston, now holds 800.3 tokens worth about $85 million, based on current pricing.
The company bought its latest Bitcoin at an average price of $103,234 per token. Bitcoin was recently trading at roughly $106...
The founder of online news publication TechCrunch has claimed that Coinbase’s recent data breach “will lead to people dying,” amid a wave of kidnap attempts targeting high-net-worth crypto holders.
TechCrunch founder and venture capitalist Michael Arrington added that this should be a point of reflection for regulators to re-think the importance of know-your-customer (KYC), a process that requires users to confirm their identity to a platform. He also called for prison time for executives that f...
Kevin O’Leary responded Monday to U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren's (D-MA) latest attacks on the Senate’s stablecoin bill, rejecting her claims as “completely deranged” and warning that politicizing the legislation could undermine the U.S.’s position in global finance.
“She’s confusing politics with progress, and this time, it could cost America dearly,” the Shark Tank investor and entrepreneur tweeted Monday. He added that, “This bill has nothing to do with Trump or meme coins.”
Elizabeth Warre...