Hackers Return Portion Of Record Crypto Heist Haul

A firm specialising in transferring cryptocurrency said on Wednesday that hackers have sent back a portion of the digital loot from a record haul.

Poly Network fired off a tweet saying it had received about US$4.8 million worth of the stolen assets back, hoping for more from the online heist potentially valued at more than US$600 million.

Poly Network had put out a plea for the stolen Ethereum, BinanceChain and OxPolygon tokens to be shunned by traders running "wallets" for storing cryptocurrency.

"The amount of money you hacked is the biggest one in the defi history," Poly Network said on Tuesday in a tweeted message to the thieves, using a reference to decentralised finance involving cryptocurrency.

"The money you stole are from tens of thousands of crypto community members."

The return of some of the digital loot came as cyber "white hat" security experts scrutinise the theft and track the thieves.

Blockchain system defence firm SlowMist valued the Poly Network heist at more than US$610 million and said it is on the hackers' trail.

"The SlowMist security team has grasped the attacker's mailbox, IP, and device fingerprints through on-chain and off-chain tracking, and is tracking possible identity clues related to the Poly Network attacker," the company said in a blog post.

Poly Network threatened police involvement, but also offered the hackers the chance to "work out a solution".

It posted online addresses used by the hackers, and called on "miners of affected blockchain and crypto exchanges to blacklist tokens" coming from them.

As of the end of April, cryptocurrency thefts, hacks and fraud so far totalled US$432 million, according to an analysis by CipherTrace. (AFP)