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World’s largest crypto hack sees half the stolen funds returned

Cyber thieves who executed the world’s largest cryptocurrency heist have returned half of the stolen funds in a bizarre twist.

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Thu, 12 Aug 2021
World’s largest crypto hack sees half the stolen funds returned
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The hackers, who were able to steal an estimated $827 million during a daring raid against decentralised finance (DeFi) platform Poly Network, had begun returning the funds after one person who claimed to be the hacker said that they did it “for fun”.

At the time of publication, US$260 million had been returned to users.

Poly Network shot back at the hackers, arguing that the haul was one of the largest in DeFi history and would result in a significant man hunt.

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According to Poly Network, “After preliminary investigation, we located the cause of the vulnerability. The hacker exploited a vulnerability between contract calls, exploit was not caused by the single keeper as rumored.”

However, the chase might soon be over for the would-be thieves.

Blockchain and cyber security company SlowMist confirmed that they were closing in on the hackers.

“The SlowMist security team has grasped the attacker's mailbox, IP, and device fingerprints through on-chain and off-chain tracking, and is tracking possible identity clues related to the Poly Network attacker,” a tweet by the company read.

[Related: Kaseya secures decryptor key following cyber attack]

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