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(CNN Business) -
Hackers stole about $ 600 million in cryptocurrency from the decentralized financial platform Poly Network, in what is believed to be the largest theft in the history of the industry.
A vulnerability in Poly Network allowed the thief to seize the funds, the platform said Tuesday, begging the attacker to return the money.
"The amount of money he hacked is the largest in the history of DeFi (Decentralized Finance)," Poly Network wrote in a letter to the attacker posted on Twitter.
"The money he stole is from tens of thousands of members of the crypto community ... you should talk to us to find a solution."
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Poly Network urged other members of the cryptocurrency ecosystem to "blacklist" assets from addresses used by the attacker to divert funds, which included a combination of various currencies, including $ 33 million from Tether, according to the CTO of Tether. (In a statement, Tether later said it froze assets within 20 minutes of learning of the attack.) Cryptocurrency exchange Binance said it was "coordinating with all of our security partners to actively help." Poly Network bridges the blockchains of multiple virtual currencies to create interoperability between them.
After the attack, Poly Network established several addresses to which it said the attacker could return the money.
And it appears the hacker is cooperating: As of 7:47 am ET Wednesday, Poly Network said, it had received about $ 4.7 million back.
It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack.
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By noon, much more money had been returned, about $ 261 million, according to blockchain forensic firm Chainalysis.
In notes attached to some of the transactions, Chainalysis said, the attacker claimed to have hacked Poly Network "for fun :)" and that he took the attack as a challenge.
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"I take responsibility for exposing the vulnerability before the infiltrators hide and explode!"
the attacker wrote.
"I understood the risk of exposing myself even if I don't do wrong. So I used a temporary email, IP or, also called, fingerprint, which couldn't be traced. I'd rather stay in the dark and save the world."
Once the hack gained the world's attention, there was virtually no way for the hacker to safely withdraw the funds, Chainalysis said, because every transaction is recorded and traceable.
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"With the inherent transparency of blockchains and the eyes of an entire industry on you, how could a crypto hacker hope to escape with a large amount of stolen funds?" The company wrote in its report.
"In most cases, the best they could hope for would be to evade capture, as the funds are frozen in a blacklisted private wallet."
Regulators increased their scrutiny towards crypto platforms as investors invest billions of dollars in digital currencies.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren recently asked SEC Chairman Gary Gensler to investigate the SEC's ability to oversee trading on crypto platforms.
In response, last week, Gensler said: "Right now, I think investors using these platforms are not adequately protected."
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Clare Sebastian contributed reporting.
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