Poloniex Ether worth about $53 million was stolen and is still missing from the exchange since a hacker stole it from 6 different addresses.
Using the privacy protocol Tornado Cash, more than fifty percent of the $100 million worth of Ether associated with the infamous Poloniex breach in November 2023 has been siphoned off.
Wallets affiliated with the cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex detected substantial unauthorized disbursements on November 10, 2023. Later investigations determined that an intrusion compromised Ether worth over $100 million.
Although Poloniex issued a $10 million bounty and claimed to have identified the hacker weeks later, the plundered funds never returned to the exchange. As CertiK, a blockchain security firm, stated, it is probable that a “private key compromise” transpired.
Due to the dubious disbursements, the exchange had rendered the compromised wallet temporarily inoperable.
Six months later, it became apparent that the Poloniex intruder had no intention of returning the stolen funds. According to blockchain investigation firm PeckShield, more than half of the wealth was siphoned through Tornado Cash, an asset anonymization protocol.
As depicted in the preceding flowchart, the intruder transferred more than 17,800 ETH from six distinct wallets to a new Tornado Cash address. The approximate value of the tokens at the time of transmission was $53.3 million.
Despite the $100 million setback, Poloniex quickly resumed operations, allowing investors to deposit and withdraw cryptocurrencies freely.
The exchange remained a “premier security auditing firm” to bolster the protection of funds on Poloniex and prevent future occurrences of these types of breaches. At that moment. The business had stated:
“Currently, they are in the final stages of the security audit and verification processes for Poloniex. Upon completion of the audit, we will promptly resume deposit and withdrawal services on our platform.”
After acquiring the exchange in 2019, Poloniex owner Justin Sun committed to reimbursing all users impacted by the breach. He further stated that Poloniex “maintains a healthy financial position” and is actively seeking partnerships with other exchanges to recuperate the lost funds.