Crypto Hack: $611 Million Cryptocurrencies Stolen In Largest DeFi Crypto Theft

On Tuesday, hackers allegedly infiltrated blockchain-based platform Poly Network and stole more than $600 million in cryptocurrencies, according to the company's Twitter account. This is the largest attack in the decentralized finance area, which is gaining traction among investors.

Poly Network transfers tokens between blockchains like as Etereum and Ontology, as well as the bitcoin blockchain.

According to The Block, it was developed through a collaboration between the teams behind several blockchain platforms, including Neo, Ontology, and Switcheo.

Ethereum is thought to be the cryptocurrency that has been the most hit by the theft. Hackers stole $273 million in Ethereum tokens, $253 million in Binance Smart Chain tokens, and $85 million in U.S. Dollar Coin (USDC) tokens from the Polygon network.

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.

The hack, which is estimated to be worth $611 million in various crypto assets, including hundreds of millions of dollars in Ether ETHUSD, 2.49 percent and Binance coins, is one of the greatest in crypto history.

"We are aware of the poly.network exploit that occurred today. While no one controls BSC (or ETH), we are coordinating with all our security partners to proactively help. There are no guarantees. We will do as much as we can," tweeted Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance, a cryptocurrency exchange.

Researchers believe the intrusion was caused by a cryptography flaw, which is uncommon in prior hacking cases. Poly Network's attack may have been comparable to the Anyswap exploit, which saw $7.9 million stolen when a hacker reversed the private key in July.

SlowMist, a blockchain-based security startup, released a statement hours after the incident, claiming to have tracked down the attacker's email, IP address, and device fingerprints, as well as other identity evidence.