Unidentified hackers stole about $600 million in cryptocurrency from the decentralized finance platform Poly Network in what is believed to be the largest theft in the history of cyber currency, and the website is now pleading with them to get it back, CNN reports. And the plea may be working.
“The amount of money you hacked is the biggest one in the defi history,” Poly Network wrote in a letter to the attacker it posted to Twitter. “The money you stole are from tens of thousands of crypto community members… you should talk to us to work out a solution.”
The repositories of the various cryptocurrencies stolen have taken actions to freeze the so-called “coins” involved in the theft, and they’re working with cyber security professionals to mitigate the damage from the hack. Multiple cryptocurrency exchanges were involved, including Tether and Binance.
As of Wednesday afternoon, about $261 million has been returned, and the hacker wrote on an anonymous message board that s/he undertook the theft “for fun :)” and to expose gaps in the cryptocurrencies’ security.
“I take the responsibility to expose the vulnerability before any insiders hiding and exploiting it!” the attacker wrote. “I understood the risk of exposing myself even if I don’t do evil. So I used temporary email, IP or _so called_ fingerprint, which were untraceable. I prefer to stay in the dark and save the world.”