Hacker behind $600 million crypto heist claims did it ‘for enjoyable’

An individual claiming to be the hacker behind one of many greatest cryptocurrency heists of all time says the theft was accomplished “for enjoyable.”

Greater than $600 million price of crypto was stolen within the cyberattack, which focused a decentralized finance platform referred to as Poly Community.

Decentralized finance is a fast-growing house inside the crypto business that goals to breed conventional monetary merchandise like loans and buying and selling with out the involvement of any middlemen.

Whereas it has attracted billions of {dollars} in funding, the DeFi house has additionally given rise to new hacks and scams. For instance, a token backed by billionaire investor Mark Cuban just lately dropped from $60 to a number of thousandths of a cent in an obvious “financial institution run.”

Poly Community is a platform that appears to attach totally different blockchains to allow them to work collectively. A blockchain is a digital ledger of transactions that is maintained by a distributed community of computer systems, fairly than a government.

On Tuesday, a hacker exploited a flaw in Poly Community’s code to steal the funds. Based on researchers at blockchain safety agency SlowMist, Poly Community misplaced greater than $610 million within the assault.

Poly Community then pleaded with the hacker to return the cash and, certain sufficient, practically half of the crypto haul was returned by Wednesday. As of Thursday morning, $342 million price of belongings had been returned, in accordance with Poly Community.

In a Q&A embedded inside a digital forex transaction Wednesday, an individual claiming to be the nameless hacker defined the reasoning behind the hack — “for enjoyable.”

“When recognizing the bug, I had a blended feeling,” the individual stated. “Ask your self what to do had you dealing with a lot fortune. Asking the undertaking workforce politely in order that they’ll repair it? Anybody could possibly be the traitor given one billion!”

“I can belief no person!” the individual continued. “The one answer I can provide you with is saving it in a _trusted_ account whereas conserving myself _anonymous_ and _safe_.”

The individual additionally gave a purpose for returning the funds, claiming: “That is at all times the plan! I’m _not_ very keen on cash! I do know it hurts when individuals are attacked, however should not they study one thing from these hacks?”

Tom Robinson, chief scientist at blockchain analytics agency Elliptic, stated the individual writing the Q&A was “positively” the hacker behind the Poly Community assault.

“The messages are embedded in transactions despatched from the hacker’s account,” Robinson instructed CNBC. “Solely the holder of the stolen belongings might have despatched them.”

CNBC couldn’t independently confirm the authenticity of the message, and the hacker, or hackers, haven’t been recognized. SlowMist stated its researchers had tracked down data on the attacker’s IP and e-mail data. Within the Q&A, the hacker claimed to have taken care to make sure being “untracable.”