After conducting the biggest crypto hack in history, the PolyNetwork hacker has returned $342 million out of the $612 million worth of crypto assets stolen, according to the latest information.
The platform said today that it has received about $4.6 million on the Ethereum address, $252million on the Binance Smart Chain address, and $85 million on the Polygon address.
The PolyNetwork hacker claims that the rest of the funds, about $268 million, are in safe custody while they continue to negotiate with the network.
The hacker has even gone to great lengths to initiate an Ask Me Anything (AMA) session on how they conducted the hack using embedded messages in Ethereum transactions.
PolyNetwork Exploit Was “For Fun”
In the AMA session, the hacker was asked why they had exploited PolyNetwork, drawing such massive attention to themselves.
In response the hacker responded that they did it “for fun”, adding that ” cross-chain hacking is hot.”
They further claimed that the hack was to expose some vulnerabilities in PolyNetwork’s system before “insiders” with dishonorable intents exploit it.
“When spotting the bug, I had a mixed feeling. Ask yourself what to do had you facing so much fortune. Asking the project team politely so that they can fix it? Anyone could be the traitor given one billion. I can trust nobody! The only solution I can come up with is saving it in a trusted account.”
They added,
“Now everyone smells a sense of conspiracy. Insider? Not me, but who knows? I take the responsibility to expose the vulnerability before any insiders hiding and exploiting it!”
The hacker also expressed displeasure in the open letter that PolyNetwork had posted on Tuesday, stating that “law enforcement in any country will regard this as a major economic crime and you will be pursued.”
In their defense, the hacker said that they had planned to return the funds, adding
“They urged others to blame me and hate me before I had any chance to reply!”
White-hat Hacker Theory? Critics Disagree
While some industry participants are speculating that the hacker is of the white-hat variety, some crypto analysts do not share this view.
Tom Robinson, Chief Scientist at blockchain analytics firm, Elliptic, argued that the decision to return the stolen funds could have been prompted by the difficulties involved in laundering stolen cryptocurrency on such a large scale.
He said,
“Even if you can steal crypto-assets, laundering them and cashing out is extremely difficult, due to the transparency of the blockchain and the broad use of blockchain analytics by financial institutions.”
