One person who claims to be the hacker behind the largest cryptocurrency heists ever committed fraud and claimed they stole the funds “for entertainment.”
More than $600 million worth of crypto was stolen in the cyberattack, which targeted a decentralized finance platform called Poly Network.
Decentralized finance, or Defi for short, is a rapidly-growing sector within the crypto industry. It aims to replicate traditional financial products such as loans and trading without any middlemen.
It has attracted billions in investment but it has also led to new scams and hacks. For example, a token backed by billionaire investor Mark Cuban recently dropped from $60 to several thousandths of a cent in an apparent “bank run.”
One person who claims to be the hacker behind the largest cryptocurrency heist of all time said they took the funds “for fun.”
More than $600 million worth of crypto was stolen in the cyberattack, which targeted a decentralized finance platform called Poly Network.
Decentralized finance, or DeFi for short, is a rapidly-growing sector within the crypto industry. It aims to replicate traditional financial products such as loans and trading without any middlemen.
It has attracted billions in investment but it has also led to new scams and hacks. For example, a token backed by billionaire investor Mark Cuban recently dropped from $60 to several thousandths of a cent in an apparent “bank run.”
A hacker took advantage of a weakness in the code of Poly Network to steal the funds on Tuesday. According to researchers at blockchain security firm SlowMist, Poly Network lost more than $610 million in the attack.
Poly Network then pleaded with the hacker to return the money and, sure enough, nearly half of the crypto haul was returned by Wednesday. According to Poly Network, assets worth $342 million had been returned as of Thursday morning.
A person claiming to represent the anonymous hacker explained the reason behind Wednesday’s hack in a Q&A embedded into a digital currency transaction.
The person stated that he had mixed feelings when he spotted the bug. Ask yourself what you would do if you were facing such a lot of fortune. It is polite to ask the team for help so they can solve it. One billion dollars could make anyone a traitor!”
They continued, “I cannot trust anyone!” “The only way I can think of is to save it in a trusted account and keep myself anonymous and safe.”
Another reason was given by the person, which stated that they had always planned to return the money. I’m not very interested in money! While I understand that it hurts when people get attacked, shouldn’t they be able to learn something from these hacks?
Chief scientist at Elliptic’s blockchain analytics company Elliptic, Tom Robinson, stated that the person who wrote the Q&A was “definitely the hacker behind Poly Network attack.”
Robinson explained to CNBC that the messages were embedded in transactions sent by the hacker’s email account. Robinson said that only the owner of the stolen assets could have sent the messages.
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CNBC was unable to independently verify the authenticity and the hackers have not been identified. SlowMist claimed that its researchers had uncovered information about the attacker’s IP address and email information. The hacker stated that they had taken care to make their identity “untraceable” in the Q&A.