Poly Network hackers claim they were attempting to ‘save the planet,’ and have returned more than 50% of stolen funds.
As of 11:00 a.m. Hong Kong time, the hackers responsible for the Poly Network attack have returned around US$340 million, more than half of their over US$600 million hauls. According to the most recent tweet from Poly Network, the hackers have recovered US$3.3 million in Ethereum tokens, US$256 million in total stolen tokens from the Binance Smart Chain, and US$1 million in USD Coins on the Polygon blockchain.
However, Polygonscan reports that the hackers returned USD Coins worth around US$84 million to the Polygon blockchain. This indicates that the entire amount of USD Coins taken from Polygon has been recovered.
Apart from USD Coins, the returned assets include Binance USD, Shiba Inu Coin, and Fei, a decentralized finance algorithmic stable coin (Defi). On the Ethereum blockchain, assets worth approximately US$269 million have yet to be refunded.
While the offenders began returning funds, they also held an Ethereum blockchain Q&A session. Primitive Crypto’s founder, Dovey Wan, tweeted accusations that they used hacking to uncover weaknesses in the Poly Network. Additionally, they disclosed additional details regarding the hack’s execution and stated that they were attempting to “rescue the world” and had no intention of laundering the funds.
Despite the hackers’ claims and self-proclaimed good intentions, the attack affected multiple investors, with some losing major chunks of their crypto holdings. CIO David Kay of Swiss blockchain-based litigation financing firm Liti Capital stated in a statement:
[The Poly Network hack] shows the ingenuity of the hackers and the need for the blockchain community to enhance stricter audit rule for their protocols. Cybersecurity needs to be a fully inclusive process that safeguards not only protocols but also the assets of the investors. Without an intense focus on continuing to better our protocols, incidents like this are bound to happen again, which ultimately will reduce the overall credibility of the blockchain industry.”
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