Hackers steal $600m worth of cryptocurrency in major heist

Cryptocurrency exchanges say they were cooperating with the investigation.

Photo shows physical imitations of cryptocurrency in Dortmund, western Germany (AFP via Getty Images)

In what could be one of the largest cryptocurrecny heists ever, hackers have stolen virtual currencies worth $600 million.

Poly Network, a site which makes blockchains work together, said hackers had exploited a vulnerability in its system and took thousands of digital tokens from it.

Blockchains are ledgers of financial activities on various cryptocurrencies are based, and each type of the virtual currency such as Ether and Bitcoin has its own blockchain.

The Poly Network blockchain site allows users to move tokens linked to one of these ledgers to a different network, making them work together.

“The amount of money you have hacked is one of the biggest in defi [decentralised finance] history,” the company noted in a letter addressed to the hacker that was posted on Twitter.

“Law enforcement in any country will regard this as a major economic crime and you will be pursued. The money you stole are from tens of thousands of crypto community members, hence the people,” Poly Network said in the letter.

After preliminary investigation, the company said the hacker exploited a vulnerability between contract calls to make the heist.

It noted that about $267m of Ether currency, $252m of Binance coins, and close to $85 million in USDC tokens has been taken.

Cryptocurrency exchanges also noted that they were cooperating with the investigation.

Changpeng Zhao, chief executive of Binance, tweeted that his firm was aware of the hack, and was “co-ordinating with all our security partners to proactively help”.

“While no one controls BSC (or ETH), we are coordinating with all our security partners to proactively help. There are no guarantees. We will do as much as we can,” he added.

On scale, experts say the hack could be comparably as big as recent cryptocurrency exchange breaches like the ones at Coincheck and Mt Gox.

“We’re watching the flow of coins, and will do our best to manage the situation. Our wallet team will get in touch if we need more information,” tweeted Jay Hao, chief of OKEx, a cryptocurrency exchange based in Seychelles.

Du Jun, co-founder of another Seychelles-based exchange Huobi, said the company’s teams are already tracking and identifying the addresses involved.

“Huobi has taken notice of the large sum stolen from the Poly Network tonight. We’ll do everything in our power to assist and protect the crypto community,” he noted.