Stolen: Over $600 Million In Crypto Currencies

Crypto hackers may have executed the biggest crypto currency theft in history. More than $600m (£433m) has been stolen in what’s likely to be one of the biggest crypto-currency thefts ever. Hackers have apparently breached blockchain-based platform Poly Network and stole more than $600 million in crypto currencies,including Ethereum. making this  the biggest known hack ever in 'decentralised finance'.  

Poly Network is a platform which allows users to exchange crypto tokens and has confirmed that thousands of investors have been affected by this latest crypto theft. 

A blockchain is a ledger of activities upon which various crypto currencies are based. Each digital coin has its own blockchain and they’re different to each other. Poly Network claims to be able to make these various blockchains work with each other.
“We are sorry to announce that #PolyNetwork was attacked,” Poly announced in a tweet yesterday, confirming that millions of dollars have been stolen from crypto investors.

In subsequent message, PolyNetwork disclosed the addresses of the attackers to which the stolen amount was transferred.
"We call on miners of affected blockchain and crypto exchanges to blacklist tokens coming from the above addresses," announced the platform, which was formed by an alliance between the teams behind multiple blockchain platforms, Neo, Ontology and Switcheo

It has asked hackers to return the assets, while adding that a legal action will be taken against those involved. Ethereum is believed to be the most affected crypto currency in the theft. The hackers have taken $273 million in in Ethereum tokens, $253 million in tokens on Binance Smart Chain and $85 million in U.S. Dollar Coin (USDC) tokens on the Polygon network.  About $33 million of the stablecoin Tether that was a part of the theft has been frozen by Tether’s issuer soon after the attack. This means that these tokens cannot be used by the hackers.

One of the biggest advantages of crypto currency is that it uses encryption whenever a transaction needs to be verified. Crypto currency gets its name from the very thing that makes it as secure as possible: cryptography, aka ciphers and codes, according to Kaspersky. 

“Technology has changed the way people work, communicate, shop and even pay for goods. Companies and consumers don't always prefer cash anymore, and this behavior is giving way to contactless payments like Apple Pay. With the quick wave of a smartphone, consumers can pay for items at digital registers. Now, a new payment system is emerging: crypto currency... Crypto currency is a digital payment system that doesn't rely on banks to verify transactions” says Kaspersky.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has recently charged lender Blockchain Credit Partners and two of its top executives for raising $30m through allegedly fraudulent offerings. Losses from crime in the overall crypto-currency market dropped sharply in 2021 to $681m, compared to $1.9bn for the whole of 2020 and $4.5bn in 2019 

PolyNetwork:    CNBC:    Forbes:   Kaspersky:   Complex:   TechTimes:      BBC:      IndiaToday:    Image: Unsplash

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