Poly Network attack: What happened to the biggest DeFi hack in history

In DeF’s largest hack ever seen by the digital assets industry, the hacker stole more than $ 611 million from the cross-chain Poly Network. Poly Network allows users to exchange tokens between multiple block chains, including Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, Polygon, and others. Poly Network reported the attack on Twitter 10. August.

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: 0xC8a65Fadf0e0dDAf421F28FEAb69Bf6E2E589963
BSC: 0x0D6e286A7cfD25E0c01fEe9756765D8033B32C71

— Poly Network (@PolyNetwork2) August 10, 2021

How much was stolen? Who did it?

Poly Network was attacked on Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain and Polygonil. Blockchain company Slow Mist claims that the attacker’s initial funds were in Monero and were exchanged for BNB, ETH and MATIC for the attack.

A total of at least $ 611 million was stolen. This amount includes:

• Ethereumi $ 273 million
• $ 253 million to BSC
• $ 85 million from Polygon

The stolen assets also include WETH, WBTC, RenBTC, DAI, UNI, SHIB and FEI. Later, the hacker tried to deposit USDC and DAI on the DeF platform Curve.

Poly Network calls for wallet freezes and legal assistance

Deviating from the saying “everything is decentralized and no one can do anything about it”, according to which the digital currency area lives, Poly Network called on stock exchanges and miners to freeze the attacker’s addresses and prevent him from moving the stolen money.

Tether was one of the first respondents to freeze $ 33 million worth of USDT in Ethereum just before the attacker tried to clean it through Curve.

Changpeng Zhao , CEO of Binance maintained the principle of decentralization and replied that no one would control Binance Smart Chain after all. He claimed to be doing what he could, but without guarantees. Poly Network also claimed to take legal action to recover the stolen funds.

The hacker will return the stolen money

The cyber hacker returned almost half of the $ 600 million he managed to steal.

About $ 260 million had been returned by Wednesday noon , Poly Network said in a tweet. According to the post, $ 3.3 million of the funds returned were $ 10 million in the Ethinum, $ 256 million in the Binance Smart Chain and $ 1 million in the Polygon.

The refund followed a request from Poly Network on Tuesday to return the hacker and call on the hacker to stop exchanging tokens from the hacker’s wallet.

According to the Poly Network tweet, about $ 269 million is left to the hacker and $ 84 million to the hacker.

Looking at a question-and-answer session embedded in etherum transactions sent from an account of stolen assets, the hacker said he stole the money “for fun :)” because “inter-chain hacking is hot.” “Poly network is a decent system,” said the hacker. “It’s one of the hardest attacks a hacker can enjoy.” The hacker also said he took the money after the bug was discovered, “to keep it safe.”

A cyber attack on Poly Network joins an increasing number of attacks against the rapidly growing DeF space.

So far, DeF hacks account for more than three-quarters of cryptocurrence seizures this year, according to a report by intelligence firm Ciphertrace .