The suspected hacker behind the massive Poly Network crypto heist on August 11 claimed they stole $600 million worth of crypto ‘for fun’. According to digital messages shared by Elliptic and Chainalysis, the hacker dubbed Mr White Hat stated that they aimed to ‘expose the vulnerability’ of the platform before others could exploit it.
‘I know it hurts when people are attacked, but shouldn’t they learn something from those hacks?’ the hacker stated against cryptocurrency exchange firm Poly Network’s current security protocols.
A few hours after the network attack, the hacker returned $258 million, claiming that they weren’t ‘interested in money.’ As of Thursday afternoon, Poly Network has recovered a total of $342 million, leaving $268 million worth of ether still unaccounted for.
‘All the remaining user assets on Ethereum (except for the frozen USDT) had been transferred to the multi-sig wallet controlled by Mr White Hat and Poly Network team. The repayment process has not yet been completed. To ensure the safe recovery of user assets, we hope to maintain communication with Mr White Hat and convey accurate information to the public’, Poly Network stated in one of its tweets on Thursday.
‘The hacker exploited a vulnerability between contract calls; the exploit was not caused by the single keeper as rumoured’, they added.
According to an analysis made by crypto expert Kelvin Fichter, the hacker changed a list of public keys to match their private keys and then rerouted the funds to personal wallets.
‘When spotting the bug, I had mixed feelings. Ask yourself what to do had you faced so much fortune…I can trust nobody! The only solution I can come up with is saving it in a trusted account while keeping myself anonymous and safe’, Mr White Hat said.
Following the controversy, the hacker also claimed that the firm offered him $500,000 and immunity from prosecution once they returned all of the stolen assets. However, they decided to reject the offer.
Poly Network is a DeFi platform that allows users to transfer tokens from one blockchain to another using smart contracts.
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