November 10, 2023 at 01:53PM
Poloniex founder Justin Sun has offered a reward of up to $6.5 million to the hackers who drained $120 million from the cryptocurrency exchange. Sun has given the hackers seven days to return the stolen funds before he engages law enforcement. The attack on Poloniex is the latest in a series of high-profile wallet-draining attacks in the blockchain community. Experts believe that the attack shares similarities with the work of the Lazarus cyber operation group.
Meeting Takeaways:
1. The founder of Poloniex has offered a “white hat bounty” to the hackers who drained $120 million of user funds from the cryptocurrency exchange. The bounty is worth 5% of the stolen funds, up to $6.5 million.
2. Poloniex has disabled its wallet for maintenance and claims to have successfully frozen a portion of the stolen assets. The losses are within manageable limits, and Poloniex’s operating revenue can cover them.
3. SlowMist, a blockchain security company, has compiled data on the attack and estimates that $130 million worth of cryptocurrency assets have been stolen.
4. Cyvers, another blockchain security company, was among the first to alert the public to the suspicious withdrawals from Poloniex’s hot wallet.
5. The attacker has been offloading the stolen assets for Ethereum and Tron tokens.
6. PeckShield has broken down the losses by individual blockchains: Ethereum – $56 million, Tron – $48 million, Bitcoin – $18 million.
7. Poloniex’s incident is part of a series of high-profile wallet-draining attacks in the blockchain community.
8. There is speculation that a North Korean state-sponsored cyber operation known as “BlueNoroff,” a sub-group of Lazarus, may be behind some of these attacks.
9. The Monero Project also suffered a significant loss, with one of its wallets being drained of XMR worth over $400,000. The exact method used in this theft is still unknown.