Surprise as hacker returns millions and pledges to pay everything back

THE HACKER behind a major cryptocurrency heist has returned almost half of the stolen assets, worth £433m.

The firm that was hacked, Poly Network, appealed to the hacker via Twitter, asking for resolution. The un-named hacker pledged to return the funds, saying they were “not very interested in money”.

Poly Network, a blockchain platform where users can swap one cryptocurrency for another, has since been reimbursed £187.5m in three tokens: Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain and Polygon. Still outstanding is £194m in Ethereum and £60.5m in Polygon.

The hacker reportedly published online a “self-interview” in the form of a Q&A session. He or she said that the plan had always been to return the funds, and claimed the hack was carried out to point-out vulnerabilities in the software used for crypto trades.

The hacker wrote in notes embedded on the Ethereum blockchain: “I know it hurts when people are attacked, but shouldn’t they learn something from those hacks?”