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In a groundbreaking move within the cryptocurrency world, the perpetrator behind the recent staggering $114 million hack on Poloniex, one of the pioneering exchanges, has been given a request to return the stolen funds within seven days and receive a generous $10 million reward or face the unified force of law enforcement from multiple countries.
Justin Sun, a prominent figure in the crypto space, revealed that the Poloniex team had successfully identified the individual responsible for the Nov. 10 cyber intrusion. Using an unconventional approach, Sun conveyed this message to the perpetrator through an on-chain statement attached to a transaction sent to the attacker’s digital address.
Utilizing multiple languages, including Chinese, English, Russian, and Korean, the statement was transmitted via an input data message (IDM) originating from one of Sun’s Ethereum wallets, specifically labeled as address 0x176F3DAb24a159341c0509bB36B833E7fdd0a132.
$5.7 Million Bounty Offer Falls Flat After Poloniex Hack
Poloniex suffered a major cyber breach that resulted in the loss of 3.1 million XRP, 32 million US Dollar Tethers (USDT), around 284 Ethers (ETH), 86.5 Wrapped Bitcoins (WBTC), and several TRC-20 tokens from their wallets. Justin Sun offered a 5% bounty following the hack, nearly $5.7 million. Still, the hacker did not respond.
Poloniex has recently announced that it is nearing completion of the necessary steps to restore operational functionality and resume its routine trading activities. The exchange also initiated a rigorous security audit to enhance its defenses against threats. As of November 15, Poloniex reported that the audit is underway. Once concluded, the exchange anticipates it will be confident to continue its operations as usual.
The Poloniex breach of 2023 is one of the largest cryptocurrency attacks in recent times. The only larger breach occurred earlier that year when hackers made off with over $190 million during the Euler Finance incident on March 13th. In contrast to the swift resolution of the Euler attack, where the funds were returned within a month, the Poloniex breach represents one of the most significant “black hat” cyberattacks within the cryptocurrency realm over the past year.
