Poly Network, the cryptocurrency platform which lost a whopping amount of $610 million in a hack earlier this week, confirmed that it had offered the hacker or hackers a $500,000 “bug bounty”.
In a statement it thanked the hacker – who it dubbed a “white hat”, sector jargon for an ethical hacker who generally aims to expose cyber vulnerabilities – who had returned the bulk of the funds for “helping us improve Poly Network’s security”.
The network further added that it hoped “Mr. White Hat” would give to the blockchain sector’s continued development upon accepting the $500,000 reward, which it had offered as part of negotiations around the return of the digital coins.
The company didn’t confirm how it is going to repay the $500,000. It said the hacker had responded to the offer but did not say if it was accepted.
Tom Robinson, chief scientist and co-founder of crypto tracking firm Elliptic, showed a person claiming to have perpetrated the hack had said Poly Network offered him the bounty to return the stolen assets.
Poly Network is a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform that facilitates peer-to-peer transactions with a focus on allowing users to transfer or swap tokens across different blockchains.
The as-yet unidentified hacker or hackers appear to have exploited a vulnerability in the digital contracts Poly Network uses to move assets between different blockchains, according to blockchain forensics company Chainalysis.
According to Friday`s statement, the hacker has returned $340 million worth of assets and transferred the bulk of the rest to a digital wallet jointly controlled by them and Poly Network.
The remainder, held in tether, was frozen by the cryptocurrency firm behind the stablecoin.
“After communicating with Mr. White Hat, we have also come to a more complete understanding regarding how the situation unfolded as well as Mr. White Hat’s original intention,” the statement said, without giving further details.
