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- On Tuesday, hackers allegedly entered blockchain-based platform Poly Network and stole more than $600 million in cryptocurrencies, according to the company’s Twitter account
- SEC Chairman Gary Gensler stated less than a week before the Poly attack that burgeoning decentralized finance systems, commonly known as DeFi, require more regulatory monitoring
- Soon after the huge attack, crypto-exchange operators came out. Changpeng Zhao, the billionaire CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, stated in a series of tweets that the business, which is the principal operator of the blockchain on which binance coins are constructed, will work with security partners and do everything it can to assist
On Tuesday, hackers allegedly entered blockchain-based platform Poly Network and stole more than $600 million in cryptocurrencies, according to the company’s Twitter account. This is the largest heist in the decentralized finance field, which is gaining traction among investors. As Poly tweeted Tuesday morning, they are sad to report that #PolyNetwork was hacked, revealing that hackers have moved hundreds of millions of dollars to different cryptocurrency wallets.
On the Polygon network, 2,858 ether tokens worth approximately $267 million, 6,610 binance coins worth more than $252 million, and roughly $85 million in USDC tokens were transferred early Tuesday, according to wallet addresses revealed by Poly, a cross-chain interoperability network.
SEC Chairman Gary Gensler stated less than a week before the Poly attack that burgeoning decentralized finance systems, commonly known as DeFi, require more regulatory monitoring. Traditional financial middlemen such as central banks and exchanges are largely bypassed by the platforms, which instead rely on blockchains—and frequently their own cryptocurrencies—to complete transactions.
Such activities, according to Gensler, can violate securities, commodities, and banking laws, and he urged Congress to strengthen its oversight of the cryptocurrency sector, which he compared to the Wild West. Meanwhile, institutional investors have been warming up to the area, with Goldman Sachs filing last month to launch its own DeFi exchange-traded fund. The total amount is $103 billion. According to cryptodata website CoinGecko, this is the current market value of all decentralized finance tokens, and it also includes polygons.
This year, the market surpassed a $100 billion valuation for the first time, peaking at about $150 billion in May before the larger crypto market plummeted nearly 50%.
As of Tuesday morning, the stolen tokens were worth about $604 million, making it even greater than the $460 million theft on cryptocurrency exchange Mt. Gox seven years ago, which resulted in the company’s collapse and more regulation in the embryonic industry.
According to Tether’s chief technical officer, the firm behind the world’s third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization froze about $33 million in USDT tokens linked to the suspected hacker’s wallet address shortly after the breach. SlowMist, a blockchain-based security business, released a statement hours after the assault, claiming to have tracked down the attacker’s email, IP address, and device fingerprints, as well as other identification indications. Poly, which was established by NEO, a $3.3 billion Chinese cryptocurrency initiative, did not reply to a request for comment from Forbes right away.
Soon after the huge attack, crypto-exchange operators came out. Changpeng Zhao, the billionaire CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, stated in a series of tweets that the business, which is the principal operator of the blockchain on which binance coins are constructed, will work with security partners and do everything it can to assist. Meanwhile, OKEx CEO Jay Hao started the business by monitoring the flow of coins and would do [its] best to control the issue.