Cryptocurrency Heist: Poly Network Says Hacked Funds Returned

The hackers had previously said they did the attack for fun to expose a vulnerability in the platform's digital contracts.

By Reuters | Updated: 23 August 2021 18:33 IST

Cryptocurrency Heist: Poly Network Says Hacked Funds Returned

Poly Network is a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform that facilitates peer-to-peer transactions

Highlights

Poly Network allows users to swap tokens across different blockchains
It offered the hackers a $500,000 (roughly Rs. 3.7 crores) "bug bounty"
Poly Network announced the hack on August 10

Cryptocurrency platform Poly Network said on Monday that almost all of the $610 million (roughly Rs. 4,523 crores) stolen this month in one of the biggest crypto heists had now been returned by the unknown person or persons behind the attack.

In a Twitter post, Poly Network said it had regained control of all the assets except for $33 million (roughly Rs. 245 crores) in stablecoin tether that had been frozen by the company that manages it. The network said it was in talks with tether about unfreezing those funds.

As of now, #PolyNetwork has regained control of the $610M (not including the frozen $33M USDT) in assets affected in #polynetworkhack. We are in the process of returning full asset control to users. Tether is confirming the final unfreezing process with us.https://t.co/qP5MIBnexm
— Poly Network (@PolyNetwork2) August 23, 2021

The hackers had previously said they did the attack for fun to expose a vulnerability in the platform's digital contracts and it was always their plan to return the tokens. Some blockchain analysts have speculated they just found it too difficult to launder so much stolen cryptocurrency.

A lesser-known name in the world of crypto, Poly Network is a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform that facilitates peer-to-peer transactions with a focus on allowing users to transfer or swap tokens across different blockchains.

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Poly Network announced the hack on August 10 but said the perpetrators had started returning the digital coins the following day. The network also offered the hacker or hackers a $500,000 (roughly Rs. 3.7 crores) "bug bounty."

© Thomson Reuters 2021

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