In the aftermath of what is considered to be the largest hack in the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector, a total of $342 million has been returned to Poly Network by the hacker, who claimed that the exploits were merely done ‘for fun’.Poly Network confirmed the return of the funds yesterday, with the amounts for each of the protocols detailed below:
$342 million (As of 12 Aug 08:18:29 AM +UTC) of assets had been returned: Ethereum: $4.6M BSC: $252M Polygon: $85M The remaining is $268M on Ethereum
— Poly Network (@PolyNetwork2) August 12, 2021
In a previous report, CryptoDaily detailed that the hack was initiated through a modification of cross-chain contracts and verification functions. Poly Network later issued a statement regarding the situation:
“It is undeniable that we are going through a difficult period, but we still want to remind all Poly Network users and projects that our primary goal now is to fully recover the user assets. The team has been working hard on achieving this goal all time since this incident happened. We look forward to Mr. White Hat returning all of the remaining user assets as stated by him, and we will continue to work hard to achieve this goal.“
Crypto analyst and correspondent Mr. Whale took to twitter to announce the ‘Q&A’ session held by the hacker conducted through notes on Etherscan:
The #PolyNetwork “Hacker” who stole $611 Million in coins has answered various questions in a Q&A through Etherscan. pic.twitter.com/YIkc0LdX8m
— Mr. Whale (@CryptoWhale) August 11, 2021
Interestingly, days before the hack was announced by Poly Network itself, a report on the current state of hacks and other cybercrimes in the crypto and blockchain industry was released by blockchain analytics and security firm CipherTrace. The firm lists DeFi as a major factor in recent hacks, the table below provides an illustration of the scale:
According to CipherTrace’s Cryptocurrency Crime and Anti-Money Laundering Report, by the end of August, the net volume of DeFi-related hacks stolen by criminals in 2021 would have totaled $361 million. On the day of the Poly Network hack, it was nearly tripled, with DeFi hacks making up 90% of all 2021 hacks in crypto at a total of $994 million out of the $1.1 billion industry-wide record.Per its latest update on the matter, Poly Network says that “all [the] remaining user assets on Ethereum (except for the frozen USDT) had been transferred to the multisig wallet controlled by Mr. White Hat and Poly Network team.” The firm also assured its users that they will continue to communicate with ‘Mr. White Hat’ to ensure the completion of the recovery process.Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
