Cryptocurrency platform Poly Network loses some US$600 million in ‘massive hack’
- Poly Network shared details of digital wallets where the money was believed to be transferred, urging people to blacklist tokens from those addresses
- The theft appeared to be one of the biggest in cryptocurrency markets and compares with the US$530m in digital coins stolen from Tokyo-based Coincheck in 2018
A cryptocurrency platform has lost an estimated US$600 million in digital tokens after one of the sector’s biggest-ever hacking attacks, according to details of the heist which emerged on Wednesday.
Poly Network, a decentralised finance platform (DeFi), announced the hack on Twitter and posted details of digital wallets to which it said the money was transferred, urging people to blacklist tokens from those addresses.
The value of the tokens in the wallets cited by the platform was just over US$600 million at the time of the announcement, according to crypto trade publication The Block.
Poly Network did not immediately respond to a request for more detail about the incident. It was not immediately clear where the platform is based, or whether any law enforcement agency was investigating the heist.
The platform tweeted it planned to take legal action and urged the hackers to return the stolen funds to several of its digital addresses.
The plea looked to be gaining some traction, with around US$2 million in stolen tokens returned by Wednesday morning, according to public blockchain records and crypto tracking firm Elliptic.
This project is finished in my opinion. (It is) going to take a lot to regain confidence
The theft appeared to be one of the biggest ever in cryptocurrency markets and compares with the US$530 million in digital coins stolen from Tokyo-based exchange Coincheck in 2018.