Crypto Security Alerts: Polymarket Hack and Ledger Breach

In the past couple of hours, users of leading global prediction platform Polymarket and cold wallet provider Ledger were the victims of grand thefts worth millions of dollars, all while Binance now reels from the biggest hack in crypto’s history.

Polymarket suffers $2.7 million hack

User wallets on Polymarket were drained of up to $2.7 million after a vulnerability in a third-party analytics tool (DebugBear) allowed the attacker to inject malicious code into the website.

The script attacked authenticated and live trades of over 700 user accounts, liquidated their positions, then moved user collateral funds to the attacker’s wallet. Security firms tracked the funds (28.6 million $POL tokens) to a central wallet where USDC.e was being swapped to $POL tokens. These were then split into three wallets in an attempt to obscure the trail.

Notably, the event only affected the global platform, with the separately run Polymarket US left untouched. Even more, the attacker was unable to withdraw a final batch of $750,000, which Polymarket promptly froze upon getting wind of the hack.

Damage control

For about an hour, Polymarket placed international exchange into “cancel-only” mode while it conducted investigations. Soon after, the issue was resolved, and operations resumed as usual.

Polymarket has now said all victims will be “made whole” through full reimbursements. The company has also referred the incident to UK law enforcement, since DebugBear is headquartered in the UK.

Notably, this is the second major security breach event at Polymarket. The first took place in June, with malicious code targeting 15 high-net-worth individuals and netting $3 million in losses.

Ledger escalating theft

Meanwhile, police in Singapore have reported that the Ledger supply chain in the country has also been compromised as part of the recent wave of similar incidents across Asia. Losses have so far amounted to $2.7 million, with further investigations taking place.