Hacker Who Stole $600 Million in Cryptocurrency Did It 'for Fun'

The hacker behind the recent theft of almost $600 million in cryptocurrency from the decentralized finance platform Poly Network started that they hacked the platform “for fun.” The hacker has returned a considerable portion of the stolen crypto and the remaining balance of stolen Ethereum is being transferred back to Poly Network according to their Twitter account.

CNBC reports that recently more than $600 million worth of cryptocurrency was stolen from the decentralized finance platform Poly Network in a major hack. Poly Network is a financial platform that connects different blockchains so that they can work together.

On Tuesday, a hacker successfully exploited a flaw in the Poly Network platform to steal almost $610 million in cryptocurrency. Poly network resorted to pleading with the hacker to return the money, and by Wednesday, almost half of the stolen money was returned.

By Thursday morning, $342 million worth of cryptocurrency had been returned to Poly Network with additional transactions occuring.

A Q&A section was embedded within one of the crypto transactions sent on Wednesday. The section appeared to be written by the hacker behind the cyberattack who remains anonymous and explained their reasoning for the hack. The hacker stated at one point that he did the hack “for fun,” but then expanded on the situation.

The hacker stated: “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!”

The hacker continued: “I can trust nobody! The only solution I can come up with is saving it in a _trusted_ account while keeping myself _anonymous_ and _safe_.” The hacker then explained why they returned the funds, stating: “That’s always the plan! I am _not_ very interested in money! I know it hurts when people are attacked, but shouldn’t they learn something from those hacks?”

According to Tim Robinson, the chief scientist at the blockchain analytics firm Elliptic, whoever wrote the Q&A section is “definitely” the hacker. “The messages are embedded in transactions sent from the hacker’s account,” Robinson said in a statement. “Only the holder of the stolen assets could have sent them.”