Poly Network is now the latest protocol to experience a security breach with $42 billion in assets issued across several blockchains. This unfortunate development comes after the leading DeFi platform lost over $600 million in the last two years to hackers.
Per a recent tweet from Colin Wu, a Chinese blockchain journalist, the hackers went away with a huge chunk of crypto assets on several chains. Also, the latest hack resulted in the minting of outrageous sums of crypto tokens, including the popular memecoin, Shiba Inu (SHIB).
Just In: PolyNetwork is suspected to be hacked again. Hackers issued additional huge assets on several chains:
99,999,184 BNB and 10 billion BUSD were issued on Metis, and 999.8127T SHIB was issued on Heco , 87,579,118 COW and 999,998,434 OOE, 636,643,868 STACK, 88,640,563 GM…
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) July 2, 2023
Citing on-chain data, Wu noted that these attackers manipulated one of the Poly Network cross-bridge functions to mint a gross amount of tokens across different blockchain networks. Data from Certik revealed that all minted tokens amounted to $42 billion in assets.
999 Trillion SHIB Minted
Some of the tokens minted by the hackers included 999.8 trillion SHIB tokens on the Huobi Eco (HECO) chain, 99.8 million BNB & 10 billion BUSD on Metis, 999.9 million OOE, 636.6 million STACK, 88.6 million GM, and 2.1 million O3 on the Polygon Network.
1/ On 1 July, Poly Network was exploited and over $42 billion in assets were issued across multiple blockchains including METIS, HECO, BSC, ETH, FTM, OP, POLY, Gnosis and Avalanche.
See more 👇https://t.co/3L4JwqpcCd
— CertiK Alert (@CertiKAlert) July 2, 2023
The BUSD and BNB tokens on the Metis Blockchain seemed to be the greatest losers. Out of $42 billion, both tokens minted on the blockchain by hackers summed up to $34.5 billion. In a bid to reduce fear, Metis confirmed that the protocol lacks liquidity to execute a sell function for illegally minted crypto tokens.
Despite the words of assurance from Metis, Lookonchain, another on-chain network, stated that the exploiters did away with 403 ETH. These hackers got to dump 94 billion SHIB for 360 ETH and sold millions of COOK and RFuel for 43 ETH.
It seems that #PolyNetwork was attacked again, hackers minted a lot of assets.
Hackers have sold 94B $SHIB for 360 $ETH, 495M $COOK for 16 $ETH and 15M $RFuel for 27 $ETH.
And we noticed that hackers are transferring assets and 1 $ETH to new wallets, most likely for sale. pic.twitter.com/a8eqbgy1Vm
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) July 2, 2023
According to data from MistTrack, a leading tracking platform, the hackers also went away with $4.39 million by leveraging top protocols and crypto exchanges, including Tornado Cash, KuCoin, UniSwap, and others.
Poly Network Suspends Operations
Consequently, the activities of these attackers forced the Poly network team to announce the suspension of services on the platform. Additionally, the team pleaded for assistance from cybersecurity experts and others, beckoning them to forward relevant information that could help remedy the situation.
While attempting to get the exploiters to return the funds, the Poly Network team stated that they are working with the relevant authorities and anyone caught would face legal action. The team also asked stakeholders on the Poly Network to minimize further risks by withdrawing liquidity from decentralized exchanges.
Dear users,
As we continue to address this situation, we regret to inform you that our services will remain temporarily suspended.
【1/7】— Poly Network (@PolyNetwork2) July 2, 2023
Whether this voluminous minting of SHIB tokens would adversely affect the price of the asset is a matter of time. Meanwhile, the Shiba Inu community continues to anticipate the launch of Shibarium, the network’s layer-2 scaling solution.
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