Poly Network hacker returns almost all cash but declines a $500K white hat incentive

• The hacker who stole $610 million from the Poly Network cross-chain decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol has returned virtually all of the cash, claiming their activities were white hat activity
• They claimed to have done the attack for fun because cross-chain hacking is popular, but it appears they had no plans to move the cash after successfully obtaining them
• The greatest hack in decentralized finance appears to be coming to a close now that the remaining money, with the exception of the frozen USDT, has been recovered

The hacker who stole $610 million from the Poly Network cross-chain decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol has returned virtually all of the cash, claiming their activities were white hat activity. According to a Thursday update from Poly Network on the assault, all of the $610 million in money stolen via an exploit that exploited a vulnerability between contract calls has now been moved to a multi-sig wallet held by the project and the hacker. The only surviving tokens are about $33 million in Tether (USDT), which were locked as soon as the hack was discovered.

Through hidden messages in Ethereum transactions, the hacker communicated with the Poly Network team and others. They claimed to have done the attack for fun because cross-chain hacking is popular, but it appears they had no plans to move the cash after successfully obtaining them. On Wednesday, however, the hacker refunded $258 million of the cash after communicating with the project and users. Poly Network decided that the hacking was white hat conduct and gave the hacker, nicknamed Mr. White Hat, a $500,000 reward, they guarantee that one will not be held responsible for this situation. They really hope one will be able to return all of the tokens as soon as possible. When the other funds, with the exception of the frozen USDT, are recovered, they will give them the $500,000.

The poly did offer a reward, but he never took them up on it. Instead, he will return all of their funds to them, remarked the hacker.  The greatest hack in decentralized finance appears to be coming to a close now that the remaining money, with the exception of the frozen USDT, has been recovered. Though the hacker’s identity hasn’t been revealed, Chinese cybersecurity firm SlowMist issued an update immediately after the news of the breach surfaced, claiming that its investigators had tracked down the attacker’s email address, IP address, and device fingerprint.

Ritika Sharma

With a background in journalism, Ritika Sharma has worked with many reputed media firms focusing on general news such as politics and crime. She joined The Coin Republic as a reporter for crypto, and found a great passion for cryptocurrency, Web3, NFTs and other digital assets. She spends a lot of time researching and delving deeper into these concepts around the clock, and is a strong advocate for women in STEM.