Hackers have stolen $600 million U.S. in cryptocurrency from a protocol known as “PolyNetwork” that lets users swap digital coins and tokens across multiple blockchains.
Tens of thousands of people around the world are impacted by the hack in what’s being called the biggest ever cryptocurrency theft.
PolyNetwork said in a written statement that about $33 million U.S. of the stablecoin Tether that was a part of the theft has been frozen, making it unusable. It isn’t clear from the PolyNetwork website who runs the protocol that governs transactions that run on the application.
Decentralized finance has surged in popularity in the wake of a boom in the development of applications that let people trade, borrow and lend funds to each other without intermediaries such as banks and brokerages.
Cryptocurrency exchanges, including Binance, are working with PolyNetwork to track down the source of the hack and theft.
Decentralized finance apps have attracted billions of dollars in investor funds and have become frequent targets of cyberattacks. This year, decentralized finance hacks made up more than 60% of the total hack and theft volume of cryptocurrency attacks, up from 20% in 2020.
At $156 million U.S., the amount netted from decentralized finance hacks in the first five months of 2021 has already surpassed the $129 million U.S. stolen in all of 2020. About $80 billion U.S. is currently locked in decentralized finance applications.
