Hackers have stolen more than $600 million in cryptocurrency from a platform known as Poly Network, which is recorded as one of the biggest digital currency thefts ever.
Poly Network put out a plea for the stolen Ethereum, BinanceChain and OxPolygon tokens to be shunned by traders running “wallets” for storing cryptocurrency. Hackers exploited a vulnerability in Poly Network, a platform that looks to connect different blockchains so that they can work together.
“The amount of money you hacked is the biggest one in the decentralized-finance (DeFi) history. The money you stole is from tens of thousands of crypto community members,” Poly Network said in a tweeted message to the thieves, using a reference to decentralized finance involving cryptocurrency.
Even though Poly Network threatened police involvement, it also offered the hackers the chance to “work out a solution.” The platform said that a preliminary investigation found a vulnerability between contract calls, and denied rumors that the exploit was caused by a single keeper.
“We are sorry to announce that #PolyNetwork was attacked,” and assets transferred to hacker-controlled accounts, the company said in a series of tweets. The firm posted online addresses used by the hackers and called on “miners of affected blockchain and crypto exchanges to blacklist tokens” coming from them.
The heist, estimated at $611 million in various crypto assets, including hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Ether and Binance coins, would rank as among the largest in the crypto history.
As of the end of April, cryptocurrency thefts, hacks and fraud so far this year totaled $432 million, according to an analysis by cryptocurrency compliance company CipherTrace.
“While this number may appear to be small when compared to previous years, a deeper look reveals an alarming new trend, DeFi-related hacks now make up more than 60 percent of the total hack and theft volume,” CipherTrace said in a posted report.
