- Justin Sun offers a 5% white hat reward for returning stolen Poloniex funds.
- Poloniex loss was estimated at $130 million; Ethereum, Tron, and Bitcoin were most affected.
- Poloniex resumes operations, ensures security, and covers losses with operational income.
The creator of Poloniex has proposed compensating the culprits responsible for extracting roughly $120 million from the digital currency exchange during last Friday’s heist. Justin Sun, the founder of the Tron Foundation’s currency network, suggested a “white hat bounty” for the individuals who emptied the exchange’s funds, with the condition that the remaining stolen assets be returned. Failing this, a more aggressive approach will be taken.
Moreover, Sun announced a five percent white hat reward for the Poloniex hacker, requesting the return of the funds to specified ETH/TRX/BTC wallets. He provided a 7-day period for the hacker to consider this offer, after which law enforcement would be engaged.
The founder’s announcement came soon after the exchange reported disabling its wallet, citing maintenance reasons. It’s uncertain whether this action prevented more digital currency from being stolen or limited the theft. Sun claimed, “The Poloniex team has effectively pinpointed and immobilized some assets linked to the hacker’s addresses. Currently, the extent of the losses is within controllable bounds, and Poloniex’s operational income is sufficient to offset these losses.”
“Additionally, the team have restored Poloniex’s systems, preserved relevant evidence, and in the coming days, we will work diligently to gradually resume deposits and withdrawals on Poloniex, ensuring 100 percent security. Apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.”
Justin Sun, founder Of the Tron Foundation
The blockchain security firm SlowMist has gathered all information regarding the Poloniex attack into a publicly available spreadsheet. As of the latest update, the incident resulted in the theft of cryptocurrencies worth $130 million through numerous transactions.
Another blockchain security company, Cyvers, was among the first to report the troubles at Poloniex at 1055 UTC on November 10, noting several unusual withdrawals from the exchange’s hot wallet. About an hour later, Sun acknowledged the problem and stated that the exchange was conducting an investigation.
Per SlowMist’s findings, the attacker liquidated a wide array of tokens. Investigations into the Ethereum and Tron blockchains, both linked to Sun, showed a wallet labeled “Poloniex hacker” actively converting the stolen assets into Ethereum and Tron tokens. Meanwhile, PeckShield analyzed the losses across various blockchains in the incident, finding that Ethereum faced the largest loss at $56 million. Close behind, Tron experienced a significant financial hit with $48 million lost. Bitcoin, while affected less severely, still saw a notable loss of $18 million.
