Poly Network Hacked: This Is How More than $600 million was Stolen In Largest Cryptocurrency Heist Ever

NEW DELHI: Poly Network, a blockchain-based platform, has been hacked, resulting in the theft of more than $600 million in Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies, according to a tweet from the company on Tuesday.

What Is Poly Network:

Poly Network is a platform for decentralised finance. DeFi is a broad term that refers to financial applications that use blockchain technology to eliminate intermediaries such as brokerages and exchanges. As a result, it is referred to as decentralised.

A blockchain is a public ledger of transactions that serves as the foundation for various cryptocurrencies. Each digital coin has its own blockchain that is distinct from the others. Poly Network claims to be able to integrate these various blockchains.

Biggest DeFi Hack:

This is the largest hack in the history of decentralised finance, or DeFi. Poly Network, a platform that allows users to swap crypto tokens, has verified that the recent coin heist has impacted thousands of investors.

Poly tweeted Tuesday morning, “We are sorry to announce that #PolyNetwork was attacked,” admitting that millions of dollars had been taken from crypto investors. It also revealed the attackers’ addresses, to whom the stolen funds were sent.

Action and impact of the hack:

The platform, which was founded by an alliance between the teams behind three blockchain systems – Neo, Ontology, and Switcheo – said, “We call on miners of affected blockchains and crypto exchanges to blacklist tokens coming from the above addresses.” It has demanded that the assets be returned, and has warned that legal action will be taken against anyone responsible.

The theft is thought to have had the greatest impact on Ethereum. On the Polygon network, hackers stole $273 million in Ethereum tokens, $253 million in Binance Smart Chain tokens, and $85 million in U.S. Dollar Coin (USDC) tokens. Tether’s issuer quickly frozen almost $33 million of the stablecoin Tether that was stolen as part of the hack. This means that hackers will be unable to utilise these tokens.

Increasing attack on DeFi

According to cryptocurrency compliance company CipherTrace, DeFi-related hacks totalled $361 million from the start of the year until July — a nearly threefold increase from the entire year of 2020. Fraud involving DeFi is also on the rise. They accounted for 54% of total crypto fraud volume in the first seven months of the year, compared to 3% for the entire year last year.

The attack is the largest seen in the relatively young crypto space, which has faced numerous challenges in recent months.

According to preliminary findings, a hacker exploited a “vulnerability between contract calls.” Such hacks in the DeFi space have become a major source of concern for investors. There have been several incidents since the beginning of the year, but none have involved such a large sum of money.