Poly Network has rewarded USD 500,000 to the hacker who returned all assets stolen in one of the biggest cryptocurrency heists ever. The cryptocurrency platform has confirmed that it offered the hacker ‘bug bounty.’ Poly Networks issued a statement in which it thanked the hacker for returning the bulk of the funds. The network also dubbed the hacker a ‘white hat’ who helped it improve the security of the platform. The platform said that ‘Mr. White Hat’ generally exposes cyber vulnerabilities and hoped that it would contribute to the development of the blockchain sector that is still in the nascent stage.
“After the incident, we communicated with Mr. White Hat. After the interaction, we understood how the things unfolded and also what was the original intention of Mr. White Hat.” The platform had announced the hack on Tuesday. But soon after, it said that the hacker had started returning the assets. According to the statement, Poly Network said that three digital currency wallets to whom it sends the money have received more than USD 342 million of the funds. The remaining USD 268 million of assets is locked in an account that will require a password both from the platform as well as the hacker to gain access. The hacker said in digital messages that the attack was for fun and it was always the plan to return all assets.
The company said that it offered the reward as part of negotiations around returning the digital assets. It has not mentioned anything about how USD 500,000 would be paid. The hacker has responded to the offer but it is still not clear whether the reward has been accepted or not. Poly Network is not a very popular name in the world of crypto. It is a decentralized finance platform, also known as DeFi. The main focus of the platform is to facilitate peer-to-peer transactions. It also allows users to transfer tokens across different blockchains. The hacker, which is yet to be identified, used a vulnerability in the digital contracts used by the platform for moving assets between different blockchains.
