More than $600 million has been reported stolen in what looks like one of the biggest cryptocurrency thefts ever. Hackers have been alleged to have breached blockchain-based platform Poly Network. Poly Network is a decentralized finance (Defi) firm working on the interoperability of crypto coins, in other words, a platform that looks to connect different blockchains so that they can work together. These hackers have exploited the Poly Networks vulnerability and extracted more than $600 million in cryptocurrencies.
The company took to Twitter to make this announcement, seeking to establish communication with the hackers, and urging them to “return the hacked assets.” In the letter, the company added “Law enforcement in any country will regard this as a major economic crime and you will be pursued. This is marked as the biggest hack ever in the decentralized finance space that’s heating up investors’ digital currency.
According to reports, once the hackers stole the money, they began to send it to various other cryptocurrency addresses. Researchers at security company SlowMist say a total of about $600 million worth of cryptocurrency was transferred to three different addresses. PolyNetwork revealed that $267m of Ether, $252m of Binance coins, and roughly $85 million in USDC were taken out. The combined value of the stolen tokens making it even bigger than the $460 million hacks on cryptocurrency exchange about seven years ago with Mt. Gox that led to the company’s bankruptcy and heightened regulation in the nascent space.
Since blockchain is a public ledger, the company was quick to identify the virtual addresses where these currencies were deposited and alerted cryptocurrency networks to block further deposits from the addresses. The security company, Slow Mist, in a tweet claimed that the digital currencies had been transferred to three different addresses and the company had “grasped the attacker’s mailbox, IP, and device fingerprints” and were “tracking possible identity clues”
Meanwhile, Changpeng Zhao, CEO of major cryptocurrency exchange Binance, acknowledges his firm was aware of the attack, he added there was only so much he could do. However Binance is “coordinating with all our security partners to proactively help,” but that “there are no guarantees.” “There are no guarantees,” he added. About $33 million of Ether that was part of the theft has been frozen, according to the stablecoin’s issuer.
A blockchain is a ledger of activities upon which various cryptocurrencies are based. Each digital coin has its own blockchain and they’re different from each other. Poly Network claims to be able to make these various blockchains work with each other. Cryptocurrency systems such as Ether and Binance were developed independently, so have struggled to work in conjunction with each other. Losses from fraud in the Defi sector hit an all-time high of $474m in the first seven months of the year, says a report from research company CipherTrace. But losses from crime in the overall cryptocurrency market dropped sharply to $681m, compared to $1.9bn for the whole of 2020 and $4.5bn in 2019. Last week, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged Defi lender Blockchain Credit Partners and two of its top executives for raising $30m through allegedly fraudulent offerings. The case is the SEC’s first involving securities in the Defi space.
Olagoke Ajibola is a creative writer and content producer with an eye for details and excellence. He has a demonstrated history of telling stories for TV, Film and Online. Aside from being fascinated by the power of imagination, his other interest are travel, sport, reading and meeting people.
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
