Largest Defi Hack: Neo Initiated Two Defi Projects Suffer $610 Million Hack

Defi Interoperability protocol Poly Network suffered a major hack across Binance Binance Smart Chain (BSC), Ethereum (ETH), and Polygon. A total of $610 million worth of assets were transferred to three different addresses on mentioned blockchains. This could be potentially the largest defi hack in history. The previous largest crypto hack came in the form of Coincheck exchange’s $530 million loss.

The attack surfaced when the largest cross-chain defi protocol O3 had difficulty in processing $150 million worth of transactions.  Wu Blockchain first reported the potential hack when the O3 protocol had issues processing funds worth hundreds of millions of dollars. O3 protocol said,

“O3 Swap cross-chain function is currently suspended due to the Poly Network was hacked. We are in contact with the team. Please be patient to back to full functionality. The non-cross-chain function is available and can be used normally.”

As per the latest update, the BSC address starting with 0x0D6e2 exceeded received $250 million, Ethernet Square address starting with 0xC8a65 saw $ 270 million transfer while the Polygon address received $ 85 million.

Both Poly Network and O3 protocol have suspended cross-chain functionalities in the wake of the hack. Poly Network has alerted exchange services to blacklist transactions originating from the hacked accounts. It also appealed to the hackers to return the fund while assuring they would take legal actions.

The Hack Can Spill to Other Protocols?

The fact that hackers used O3 cross-chain protocol for transfer of funds, and Poly Network being an interoperability protocol, the hack could potentially affect other defi projects as well. A dozen defi projects are integrated with Poly Network which might be in danger of potential losses.

The rising number of rug pulls and hack on Defi projects have become a major issue, despite the popularity of the ecosystem. Only last week, another Defi project Popsicle Finance experienced a $25 million loss in a rug pull attack. There hasn’t been a month in the past year when a Defi protocol has not faced an exploit.