On Wednesday, Poly Network was drained of some $600 million across three different chains, in what was likely the largest crypto hack in history.
The team behind the Poly Network protocol, a cross-chain interoperability bridge for dencentralized finance (DeFi), has requested that hackers return the stolen assets and promised legal action.
Assets stolen in the heist include $253 million in tokens on Binance Smart Chain, $266 million in Ethereum tokens, and $85 million in USDC on the Polygon network, Poly Network said.
Long-Planned Attack
The hacker’s initial source of funds was Monero (XMR), which was then exchanged to BNB/ETH/MATIC on the exchanges. The alleged hacker then exploited a vulnerability in the platform's «contract calls» – a type of test that is not intended to be published on the blockchain, to access the ledgers and transfer money out.
«This is likely to be a long-planned, organized and prepared attack,» China-based blockchain security firm SlowMist said in a tweet.
Digital Security
DeFi has come under closer scrutiny of regulators globally, particularly after a string of hacks across the last year.
While losses from crime in the overall cryptocurrency market have ben falling in recent years, the DeFi sector registered criminal losses of a record $474 million from January to July, «Reuters» reported, citing data from crypto intelligence firm CypherTrace
