The attacker transferred the stolen crypto assets to a wallet the platform had provided. There is still USD 33 million worth of USDT that Tether keeps frozen.
The hacker who had stolen more than USD 600 million from the Poly Network DeFi protocol returned almost all the cryptocurrencies. Just 48 hours after breaching the smart contracts, he transferred the digital assets to a multi-signature wallet that the platform had supplied.
The service for the operation of multiple blockchains confirmed that it had already received more than USD 256 million worth of cryptocurrencies. The DeFi platform announced that the attacker was transferring another USD 238 million to the abovementioned wallet. They said they were seeking another contact with Mr. White Hat, as they had named the hacker.
Although the hacker has not completed the figure yet, he promised to return all the funds. He wrote a message in the metadata of one of the Poly Network contact transactions. The attacker refused to receive a reward of USD 500 thousand that the platform had offered him.
There is still another USD 33 million worth of the USDT stablecoin among the cryptocurrencies to recover. Tether froze them once Poly Network disclosed the hack. No one knows for sure when they will unlock those funds so that their owners receive them back. The service sent a message to the operators to wait for new instructions on the crypto assets.
Poly Network expects users who are temporarily unable to transfer their assets to remain calm and patient. They explained that their understanding would help the team manage the recovery of the assets in the most effective way.
Vulnerabilities in DeFi Platforms and Types of Hackers
In recent years, DeFi applications have gained popularity among users but have also been the victims of attacks. What happened to Poly Network shows how vulnerable these types of platforms can be. This case has been the worst attack on a decentralized finance service because it involved a lot of money.
When the attacker returned the funds, he may have become a hacker in a white or gray hat. In the first case, attackers use their knowledge to detect security problems and help fix them.
In the second case, hackers detect vulnerabilities, exploit them, and then explain what they did. In this way, they seek that their victims try to solve the flaw in the code. Mr. White Hat would be in this case as he answered questions from the community about what happened.
The third type is the black hat hacker, who is the most dangerous. That attacker is an actual criminal since he seeks to commit a malicious act on computer networks.
This situation should lead DeFi platforms to develop much more effective security methods. The goal would be to protect their users from losing their holdings and retain their trust in the service they receive. Of course, not all hackers would be like Mr. White Hat, who provided information about the vulnerabilities that he found.
By Willmen Blanco
