Hacker returns all $610M of stolen Poly Network crypto

AppleInsider

The hacker or hackers behind what is thought to be one of the largest cryptocurrency thefts in history returned the remainder of some $610 million in stolen assets to Poly Network on Monday, with the company thanking the perpetrator or perpetrators for their cooperation.

Poly Network announced the full return of a final allotment of about $141 million in tokens in a blog post today, reports Gizmodo. The cache included Ethereum and Wrapped Bitcoin.

"At this point, all the user assets that were transferred out during the incident have been fully recovered," the company said.

A further $33 million in frozen tether is still outstanding, though the attacker does not appear to have control of those tokens.

Poly Network says it is now in the fourth phase of an "Asset Recovery" roadmap thanks to the actions of "Mr. White Hat," the name the company bestowed on the hacker or hackers responsible for stealing and then returning its crypto hoard. Funds are in the process of being returned to users impacted by the breach.

The decentralized finance platform was hacked earlier in August and made multiple attempts to retrieve the funds, including penning an open letter to the attacker or attackers.

In what appears to have been a change of heart, the hacker or hackers began to return the assets in batches. Most of the tokens made their way back into Poly Network's digital coffers by July 14, though a tranche of $268 million was held in an account requiring keys from both the attacker and company. The supposed hacker or hackers said the final key would be provided "when _everyone_ is ready."

Poly Network attempted to woo "Mr. White Hat" with both a $500,000 "bug bounty" for finding an apparent vulnerability in its system and $50,000 in reward money for the remaining funds. The company later extended the role of "chief security advisor to the unnamed hacker. Mr. White Hat refused each offer, claiming that the original plan was to return the tokens.

Poly Network operates in the DeFi sector, which seeks to replicated traditional lending and trading systems using blockchain technologies. The firm offers customers the ability to transfer assets from one blockchain to another, among other services.

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sflocal

I'm reminded of a scene from the mini-series "Ozark" where the thieves stole millions of dollars of Marty's drug money only to realize that they can't essentially do anything with all that cash without getting caught.

I suspect these criminals were of the same gene pool.

22july2013

For some reason it makes me recall a musician who left his very expensive violin in a running expensive car. Some thief stole the car with the violin inside it. The musician appealed to the thief in the news by saying, "You can keep the car, just return the violin." When the thief heard that the violin was worth ten expensive cars, he returned the car instead of the violin. Then the thief tried to sell the violin, but found out that he couldn't sell it because nobody would buy it since it would be instantly recognizable as stolen by anyone qualified to play it. So he returned the violin, too, and walked away with nothing.

Unlike expensive artwork, an expensive musical instrument can't be appreciated by anyone who doesn't know how to play it.

zeus423

sflocal said:

I'm reminded of a scene from the mini-series "Ozark" where the thieves stole millions of dollars of Marty's drug money only to realize that they can't essentially do anything with all that cash without getting caught.

I suspect these criminals were of the same gene pool.

Ozark is an amazing show for anyone looking for something to binge.

williamh

22july2013 said:

For some reason it makes me recall a musician who left his very expensive violin in a running expensive car. Some thief stole the car with the violin inside it. The musician appealed to the thief in the news by saying, "You can keep the car, just return the violin." When the thief heard that the violin was worth ten expensive cars, he returned the car instead of the violin. Then the thief tried to sell the violin, but found out that he couldn't sell it because nobody would buy it since it would be instantly recognizable as stolen by anyone qualified to play it. So he returned the violin, too, and walked away with nothing.

Unlike expensive artwork, an expensive musical instrument can't be appreciated by anyone who doesn't know how to play it.

Reminds me of the incident of Yo Yo Ma’s cello going missing. Though that turned out to be his mistake and not a theft. 

cgWerks

sflocal said:

I'm reminded of a scene from the mini-series "Ozark" where the thieves stole millions of dollars of Marty's drug money only to realize that they can't essentially do anything with all that cash without getting caught.

I suspect these criminals were of the same gene pool.

I think that's one of the big misperceptions about cryptocurrencies. People often say they are just used for illegal matters, as they aren't traceable.
It's quite the opposite, they are insanely traceable (the very nature of block-chain). It's just that they are relatively anonymized (up to the point where the powers that be want to figure out what belongs to who).

Calamander

.. or maybe their plan was from the beginning to return the funds. It happens in crypto. 

600M were taken and yes it's not that easy to money-launder that, but some of the coins were wrapped ETH and BTC and absolutely hackers who wanted to keep those could, and nobody would stop them.

It's all possible and it's been done in previous hacks where hackers kept the funds.

Admittedly a hacker would be stupid to keep 600M worth but they could be distributing the hoard to tens of thousands of lucky winners including themselves or other shenanigans like that, chances are they could easily keep a few Million of that if they wanted to.

StrangeDays

sflocal said:

I'm reminded of a scene from the mini-series "Ozark" where the thieves stole millions of dollars of Marty's drug money only to realize that they can't essentially do anything with all that cash without getting caught.

I suspect these criminals were of the same gene pool.

Doesn’t sound like it to me. They had the chops to crack into Poly, returned the tokens, and refused the offers. Sounds to me they wanted to prove their point that this system was unreliable, or pull off the biggest crypto heist, etc.. It sounds like a personal objective was met. 

cgWerks

Calamander said:

Admittedly a hacker would be stupid to keep 600M worth but they could be distributing the hoard to tens of thousands of lucky winners including themselves or other shenanigans like that, chances are they could easily keep a few Million of that if they wanted to.

True, but since it is all precisely tracked in the block-chain 'forever' they wouldn't be able to exchange for a fiat currency (ie. play money) or even buy anything major (as I'd imagine crypto-receiving pay systems would/could flag those wallets, etc.). Yeah, they would have to just endlessly hold or exchange between a bunch of wallets, break it down, etc. until the transactions became so small they weren't worth trying to track them anymore. (Of course, that is assuming the authorities cared enough to keep hunting them.)

They could keep, but the problem is using/benefiting from what they have.

StrangeDays said:
Doesn’t sound like it to me. They had the chops to crack into Poly, returned the tokens, and refused the offers. Sounds to me they wanted to prove their point that this system was unreliable, or pull off the biggest crypto heist, etc.. It sounds like a personal objective was met. 

That's quite possible as well.