Hackers behind one of the biggest ever cryptocurrency heists have decided not to run off with the haul but to return the stolen funds to their owners.
The Poly Network blockchain platform has been recently hit by a major attack which saw hackers make off with more than $600 million worth of tokens. According to the security officers of the decentralised finance platform, 2,858 tokens worth $267 million were transferred to one digital wallet, while 6,610 coins worth over $252 million - to another one. The cybercriminals exploited a vulnerability in the company’s system, which was reportedly eliminated later.
However, a few days later, the hackers began returning some of the funds they had stolen. Recent data showed that $260 million in crypto had already been returned to the platform, but $353 million was still outstanding. According to experts, such a decision could have been prompted by the difficulties in withdrawing the stolen coins. "I think this demonstrates that even if you can steal crypto assets, laundering them and cashing out is extremely difficult, due to the transparency of the blockchain and the use of blockchain analytics," Tom Robinson, the co-founder and chief scientist at blockchain analytics firm Elliptic, said. "In this case the hacker concluded that the safest option was just to return the stolen assets," he added.
