Poly Network Hacker Says 'In the Defi World Code Is Law’ While Returning Millions in Defi Tokens

Two days after the notorious Poly Network hack, the hacker continues to send funds back to the project. On August 12, the Poly Network hacker so far has returned millions worth of ether, thousands of uni tokens, 1,032 wrapped bitcoins, and 96 million in stablecoins. The day prior, after returning $260 million in tokens, the hacker explained that the Poly Network has “well enough assets to start the recovery phase.”

Poly Network Hacker Returns a Number of Defi Tokens

On August 10, Bitcoin.com News reported on the massive decentralized finance (defi) hack that plagued the Poly Network project. The cross-chain protocol lost approximately $611 million from the attack and the news quickly went viral on forums and social media. At first, the Poly Network team sent a message to the hacker in an attempt to communicate with the individual. Furthermore, in the initial stages it didn’t seem like the hacker was going to cooperate and told the team it “could have been” a billion-dollar hack.

That evening following the hack, reports had shown a security group called Slowmist published findings on the alleged hacker. Slowmist said it was able to catch a fingerprint of the hacker when he or she leveraged a relatively unknown exchange called Hoo.com. After this happened, a few hours later, the hacker sent the Poly Network team $4.7 million in various tokens. By the end of the day on Wednesday, the hacker had sent $264.7 million total and was very talkative with the Poly Network team and the white hat hacker.

The hacker noted that the hack was done for fun and also said after a long-winded explanation and returning millions of dollars in crypto assets, that he or she was tired. The hacker said that the individual does not leverage an email and all communications made have been onchain. “Disclaimer: I have never asked for bounty from Poly Network,” the hacker stressed in an onchain message. The hacker further added:

In the defi world, you can trust nobody but the code and yourself.

Hacker Continues to Return Large Fractions of Stolen Poly Network Tokens

On Thursday, the Poly Network hacker returned a stash of wrapped bitcoin (WBTC) and the stablecoin DAI. 1,032 WBTC was returned, alongside 96 million DAI, 84 million USDC, and 42,000 UNI. The hacker also gave the project 28,953 ether worth over $86 million at press time. Poly Network has been updating the community about the communications between the hacker and the white hat hacker.

“As our communication with Mr. White Hat is going on, the remaining user assets on Ethereum are gradually transferred to the multisig wallet,” the project tweeted on August 12. It also tweeted another letter which explained that the team was dealing with a “difficult period” and if they can be patient.