Hackers involved in one of the largest cryptocurrency thefts have started to return some of the stolen money. Cybercriminals had targeted Poly Network, a platform that connects different blockchains together, by exploiting a vulnerability. The result was a theft of over $600 million in cryptocurrency assets.

Poly Network is a decentralised finance (DeFi) platform, but it is not known where the platform is based out of and whether law enforcement is already involved. DeFi platforms function as financial platforms without traditional middlemen like banks and institutions being involved, theoretically making lending and borrowing easier for everyone involved.

Poly Network revealed the hack on August 10, and made a statement on Twitter asking for the hackers to return the stolen assets.

“We want to establish communications with you and urge you to return the assets,” the company posted on Twitter.

“The amount of money you hacked is the biggest one in the defi history. Law enforcement in any country will regard this as a major economic crime and you will be pursued. It is very unwise for you to do any further transactions. The money you stole are from tens of thousands of crypto community members, hence the people,” added the company.

pic.twitter.com/Yzw4oDenjC

— Poly Network (@PolyNetwork2) August 10, 2021

More than $4.8 million in assets have already been returned to Poly Network, reported CNBC. The amount was supposedly returned as laundering the tokens was proving to be harder than expected. Many major exchanges, including Binance, had commented that they would “freeze” the blacklisted tokens that were stolen from Poly Network.

“I think this demonstrates that even if you can steal crypto assets, laundering them and cashing out is extremely difficult, due to the transparency of the blockchain and the use of blockchain analytics,” Tom Robinson, Chief Scientist of blockchain analytics firm Elliptic, told CNBC via email.

“In this case the hacker concluded that the safest option was just to return the stolen assets,” he added.

Just recently, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had also managed to track down and recover a ransom of 63.7 Bitcoins paid by Colonial Pipeline in a massive ransomware attack. The new developments have highlighted that while DeFi may be free of middlemen, it is not completely free from the intervention of governmental agencies and organisations.

(Edited by : Shoma Bhattacharjee)

First Published:Aug 11, 2021 8:44 PM IST