Things are never boring in the cryptocurrency world
All investors fear losing their money but somehow the ethereal and anonymity of the cryptocurrency space exacerbates this feeling.
Canadian investors who are still wary of digital assets after the collapse of the QuadrigaCX exchange in 2019 will take no comfort from the latest big-money shock for cryptos.
Crypto exchange Poly Network has revealed that US$600 million worth of digital tokens was taken from its digital legers last week by a hacker who apparently wanted to expose security weaknesses.
The hacker, who Poly Network has called ‘Mr White Hat’ in reference to so-called white hat hackers who access systems to highlight vulnerabilities rather than to steal data or funds, has since returned most of the tokens.
However, around $200 million is reportedly still locked away by the hacker.
Poly Network offered a half-million-dollar bounty for the return of the funds and says it will pay the hacker and has even offered them a job as the firm’s chief security advisor.
#PolyNetwork has no intention of holding #mrwhitehat legally responsible and cordially invites him to be our Chief Security Advisor. $500,000 bounty is on the way. Whatever #mrwhitehat chooses to do with the bounty in the end, we have no objections. https://t.co/4IaZvyWRGz
— Poly Network (@PolyNetwork2) August 17, 2021
The bizarre twists of the story include the potential that the hacker will use the $500K bounty to reward others who are able to hack Poly Network’s defences again. The firm says it has strengthened security in the past week.
Meanwhile, ‘Mr White Hat’ has revealed something of their situation.
Communicating via secure Ethereum blockchain transaction code, they say that “money means little” to them and have “the budget to let the show go on” if Poly Network do not pay the bounty.
The firm says that it has “no intention of holding Mr White Hat legally responsible” for the attack and has no problem with whatever the hacker chooses to do with the bounty.
Not a one-off
There may be sceptics who believe this to be some kind of publicity stunt but hacking crypto exchanges is not a new phenomenon but this one is believed to be the largest ever.
In 2018, Japanese exchange Coincheck was hacked with around $535 million taken and another Japanese exchange called Mt. Gox lost $450 in a hack in 2014.
The latest hack is likely to prompt further calls for regulation of the cryptocurrency space. Regulators have been taking a closer look at activities in recent years and some form of regulation is expected as digital assets become a more mainstream investment.
