Biggest DeFi heist: Hackers steal over $610 million in major cryptocurrency theft; begin to return funds

Crypto hackers have perpetrated the biggest hack in the history of decentralised finance (DeFi). The hackers were able to steal over a whopping $610 million worth of Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, and USDC (USD Coin) tokens from crypto platform Poly Network, blockchain security firm Slowmist disclosed on Twitter. Poly Network had announced the hack on Twitter along with the details of addresses to which the tokens were transferred and also asked the affected miners to blacklist tokens coming from those addresses. “The cross-chain interoperability protocol @PolyNetwork2 was attacked, and a total of more than 610 million US dollars were transferred to 3 addresses,” Slowmist said.

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— Poly Network (@PolyNetwork2) August 10, 2021

The hackers were able to exploit a vulnerability in Poly Network’s contract system. The company said the vulnerability was between contract calls. Warning the hacker of legal action, Poly Network in a note on Twitter also urged him to return the hacked assets. “The amount of money you hacked is the biggest one in the defi history. Law enforcement in any country will regard this as a major economic crime and you will be pursued. It is very unwise for you to do any further transactions. The money you stole are from tens of thousands of crypto community members, hence the people. You should talk to us to work out a solution.”

Also read: New cryptocurrency listings swell in H1 2021 as crypto tracking platforms add over 2,000 coins

1)The cross-chain interoperability protocol @PolyNetwork2 was attacked, and a total of more than 610 million US dollars were transferred to 3 addresses. The impact caused the transfer of large assets of the O3 Swap cross-chain pool.

— SlowMist (@SlowMist_Team) August 10, 2021

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao had tweeted that he was aware of the attack. “We are aware of the poly.network exploit that occurred today. While no one controls BSC (or ETH), we are coordinating with all our security partners to proactively help. There are no guarantees. We will do as much as we can.”

The communication eventually led to the return of $4.7 million worth assets — $2.6 million to Ethereum address, $1.1 million to Binance address, and $1 million to Polygon address, according to the Poly Network’s tweet on 5.17 PM on Wednesday. According to theblockcrypto.com, hackers had stolen $273 million worth Ethereum tokens, $253 million in Binance Smart Chain tokens, and $85 million in USDC coins on the Polygon network. The hacker wrote “Ready to return the fund!” in an Ethereum transaction on Thursday at 3.48 AM.

DeFi essentially refers to a financial system wherein financial products are available on the decentralized blockchain network and open for use by anyone in a peer-to-peer manner instead of accessing the middlemen such as banks or a company to facilitate a transaction. Buying and selling digital assets are among the common DeFi uses cases.