Hacker behind $610 million crypto hack conducts AMA — claims returning the money was always ‘a part of the plan’

• The hacker behind the $611 million crypto hack of the Poly Network was “forced to play the game.”
• According to him, the plan was always to return the money but not before the platform’s bugs came into the limelight.
• So far, less than half of the stolen money has been returned.

The hacker behind the largest decentralised finance (DeFi) breach yet, claims he only stole $610 million worth of cryptocurrencies for the greater good and not because they’re “evil.”


The mysterious entity, whose real identity is still unknown, stole Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, and Polygon tokens from the Poly Network on August 10. The platform allows users to exchange one cryptocurrency for another across different blockchains.

Once the hack was discovered, the Poly Network — with help from a cybersecurity firm called SlowMist — was able to track down the attacker's IP address. However, according to the perpetrator, the IP address is only temporary.

Regardless, it did lead to them returning the stolen money. Albeit, in installments.

Why did the hacker attack the Poly Network?

The person behind the breach shared a three-page ‘ask me anything’ (AMA) on the Ethereum blockchain, where he seems to have conducted a self-interview of the incident.

“Cross chain hacking is hot,” they replied to the question on why the Poly Network was chosen as the target.

The hacker claims that he spent a good while looking for a vulnerability to exploit on the Poly Network. Once they spotted a bug, uncertain of whether they could trust anyone within the platform’s team, the attacker decided to take things into their own hands.

Why is the hacker returning the money?

The plan was never to keep the $611 million, according to the hacker. They only took the money fearing that the Poly Network would fix the bug secretly, without informing anyone.


And, leaving the vulnerability out there could leave funds open to other attacks by hackers who have no plans to return the money. “What if they patch the bug secretly without any notification,” the Poly Network exploiter, who hacks ‘for fun’, wrote in one of their responses.

So far, $260 million is back in Poly Network’s coffers. Another $269 million in Ethereum and $84 million in Polygon is yet to make its way back but only after the attacker has a nice long chat with the Poly team.


The pending money is currently invested in stablecoins so that it can earn some interest and buy the hacker some time to negotiate.

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