The biggest heist of digital currencies seems to be solving itself. The hacker says he will gradually return the money and says he did it to prevent malicious people.
At the beginning of this week, the crypto platform Poly Network was hacked. A hacker could transfer approximately $600 million worth of Ethereum, BinanceChain, and OxPolygon coins to their own address through a weak spot. Soon followed the remarkable call from Poly Network asking if the perpetrator wanted to return the money.
That…has worked. The money is currently flowing back in chunks, and at the time of writing, $342 million in coins has already flown back.
In the meantime, the hacker also reveals a little more about the intentions. Tom Robinson of crypto compliance firm Elliptic notes that messages were sent along via messages in the Ethereum.
The hacker indicates that the stolen coins were not sold and that the plan was always to return the money. He mainly wanted to do it this way to prevent someone within Poly Network from trying the same hack with bad intentions. Furthermore, by only returning the coins sparingly, he can continue sending messages without revealing their identity.
Elliptic itself says that this does not exclude prosecution because those transactions may also lead to an unmasking of the perpetrator. But as it stands, it appears to be a stunt by an ethical hacker who wants to show that it is possible to steal hundreds of millions of dollars in crypto coins.
