Hackers steal $613m in massive cryptocurrency heist, return $260m after legal threat

Hackers behind one of the biggest ever cryptocurrency heists have returned more than a third of $613 million in digital coins they stole, the company at the center of the hack said on Wednesday.

Poly Network, a decentralised finance platform that facilitates peer-to-peer transactions, said on Twitter that $260 million of the stolen funds had been returned but that $353 million was outstanding.

The company, which allows users to swap tokens across different blockchains, said on Tuesday it had been hacked and urged the culprits to return the stolen funds, threatening legal action.

The hackers exploited a vulnerability in the digital contracts Poly Network uses to move assets between different blockchains, according to blockchain forensics company Chainalysis.