Crypto Platform Poly Network Hit By $610M Heist Offers The Hacker Chief Security Advisor Position

The cryptocurrency platform Poly Network, the target of $610 million heist, has offered the hacker a chief security advisor position.

What Happened: Poly Network said that it is offering the hacker a position of security advisor with a bounty of $500,000 and is referring to them as "Mr. White Hat."

"To extend our thanks and encourage Mr. White Hat to continue contributing to security advancement in the blockchain world together with Poly Network, we cordially invite Mr. White Hat to be the Chief Security Advisor of Poly Network," the company said in the official statement. 

Previously, the hacker refused to accept the bounty payment offered to them by Poly Network.

"The poly did offer a bounty, but I have never responded to them. So instead, I will send all of their money back [sic]," they replied. 

However, they have considered offering it to the technical community who have made contributions to blockchain security, the company said. 

"Poly Network has no intention of holding Mr. White Hat legally responsible, as we are confident that Mr. White Hat will promptly return full control of the assets to Poly Network and its users." 

"We are grateful for Mr. White Hat's outstanding contribution to Poly Network's security enhancements. While there were certain misunderstandings in the beginning due to poor communication channels, we now understand Mr. White Hat's vision for Defi and the crypto world, which is in line with Poly Network's ambitions from the very beginning," said the Poly Network. "

The Money Heist: Last week, DeFi protocol Poly Network reported a total loss of over $611 million in the malicious attack, making it the biggest hack in DeFi history to date.

The stolen assets consisted of $273 million of Ethereum tokens, $253 million in tokens on Binance Smart Chain, and $85 million in USDC on the Polygon network.

According to Slowmist, the attackers' funds were funded by trading the privacy coin Monero XMR/USD for Binance Coin BNB/USD, Ethereum, Polygon, and other tokens.

The day after the attack, the exploiter started sending some of the stolen money back. 

Poly Network subsequently shared the details of three multi-sig addresses on Polygon, Ethereum, and Binance Smart Chain on Twitter, while stating that they hoped the hacker would transfer the remaining assets.

Later the hacker returned the entire sum of $610 million to the DeFi protocol. 

Still, more than $200 million of the funds is yet currently locked in an account, and it requires passwords to gain access. 

Poly Network said it genuinely hopes "Mr. White Hat will transfer the private keys as soon as possible so that we can return full asset control to the users at the earliest."

The hacker said he carried out the attack "for fun" and chose Poly Network in particular because "cross-chain hacking is hot."