Polygon Proposes Hard Fork to Recover 70.49M Stolen POL

A member of the Polygon Labs Validator Support Team has proposed a hard fork of the Polygon PoS network to recover approximately 70.49 million POL, worth $6.5 million, stolen in separate incidents involving Polymarket and Binance.

The affected funds include approximately 23.86 million POL linked to Polymarket and 46.63 million POL linked to Binance, currently restricted from transfer by block-producing nodes.

However, the proposal seeks to move them from the attackers’ addresses into recovery wallets designated and verified by the two institutions.

The proposed intervention would require a network hard fork but would not change POL’s total supply. The proposal is scheduled for discussion during the Polygon Protocol Governance Call on November 5. If approved, developers expect to complete client development and testnet rehearsals within approximately two weeks.

How the Polymarket and Binance hacks left 70.49 million POL frozen

On October 29 and 30, 2026, Polymarket and Binance were hit by separate security incidents that resulted in stolen funds being sent to addresses on Polygon PoS.

After both platforms contacted Polygon, the network’s validator-elected block producers added the attackers’ addresses to Bor’s transaction blocklist, stopping the funds movement from the address.

The Polymarket incident involved a compromised third-party vendor script that hijacked approximately 28 million POL from active, logged-in trading sessions. On October 29, two transfers moved a combined 3,282,275.71 POL between addresses.

Subsequently, validators blocked four addresses holding roughly 24 million POL linked to the incident.

Binance faced a separate incident the following day due to a compromised engineer’s laptop. The exchange asked Polygon validators to block the attacker’s address after a Binance hot wallet sent it 46,626,589.6 POL and 6,185,900.1 USDT in block 96,406,484.

Tether has since frozen the USDT, and the POL remains on the blocklist.

Although the blocklist has prevented the stolen POL from moving, it does not provide a mechanism for returning the assets to their rightful owners.

Polygon’s proposed hard fork addresses that limitation through a coordinated balance transfer at a predetermined block, however, based on the conditions and safeguards outlined in the proposal.

There are also signs that the attackers have continued attempting to access the funds. On October 30, the attacker attempted to push through a pending transaction by offering approximately 219,450 POL in fees, equivalent to 10.45 POL per gas.

The attacker also reportedly contacted validators and offered cash payments in exchange for help removing the restrictions.

Polymarket has separately opened an on-chain recovery channel to the attacker through the SEAL Safe Harbor Recovery Safe but has received no response.

Does Polygon have the power to move users’ funds, even when they are stolen?

The proposal raises an important question about how far a decentralized network should go to recover stolen assets.

Under normal circumstances, Polygon validators cannot move POL from a wallet without its owner’s private keys. A hard fork, however, allows the network to change its underlying state through a coordinated update.

If approved, the proposal would show that validators can collectively override normal balance records under exceptional circumstances.

Although the proposed intervention is just for the affected five addresses, its approval could influence how it handles similar cases in the future.

Other victims of crypto theft may point to this event when requesting the recovery of their assets, leaving validators to decide whether those cases meet the same standard.

There are also technical consequences. The change would require all validators, RPC providers, exchanges, and node operators to upgrade their Bor clients before the agreed activation block. Those that fail to upgrade would follow a different chain from that point onward.

The proposal says other core components, including Heimdall, the StakeManager, and bridge contracts, would remain unchanged.

However, blockchain explorers, indexers, and accounting tools would need to recognize the adjusted balances because the changes would not appear through ordinary transaction history alone.

Ultimately, the decision goes beyond recovering funds for Polymarket and Binance. It will test whether Polygon can intervene in extreme cases of theft while maintaining users’ confidence that their assets are safe.