Stolen Poloniex Ether worth $53m has never been returned to the exchange
More than half of the $100 million worth of Ether linked to the infamous Poloniex hack in November 2023 has been loaded into Tornado Cash, a privacy protocol.
In the year On November 10, 2023, crypto exchange wallets Poloniex recorded an unauthorized high flow. Over time, research has confirmed that more than $100 million worth of Ether (ETH) was lost in the hack.
Although Poloniex claimed to have identified the hacker weeks later and offered a $10 million reward, the stolen funds were never returned to the exchange. According to blockchain security firm CertiK, the incident is likely a “private key compromise.”
In response to the suspicious flow, the exchange temporarily disabled the compromised wallet.
Six months later, it became clear that the Poloniex hacker had no intention of returning the stolen funds. Blockchain investigative firm PeckShield found that more than half of the stolen funds were deposited in Tornado Cash, a protocol that uses assets to anonymize them.
As shown in the flowchart above, the hacker transferred over 17,800 ETH from six different wallets to one Tornado Cash address. At the time of transfer, the tokens are worth approximately $53.3 million.
Related: Pike Finance Exploited for $1.6M in Second Event in 3 Days
Poloniex had a $100 million crunch and was soon up and running, allowing investors to deposit and withdraw crypto whenever they wanted.
The exchange appointed a “high-level security audit firm” to improve financial security on Poloniex and avoid such hacks in the future. at the time. The company said:
“We are currently in the final stages of the security audit and verification process for Poloniex. We will resume booking and withdrawal services on the platform as soon as the audit is complete.”
The owner of Poloniex, Justin Sun – who acquired the exchange in 2019 – promised to fully refund the users affected by the breach, Poloniex “maintains a healthy financial position” and seeks cooperation with other exchanges to recover the lost funds.
Magazine: What do crypto market makers do? Liquidity, or fraud
