Poloniex reveals plans to restore operations following a major hack
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Justin Sun’s crypto exchange Poloniex suffered a major hacking attack on November 10, which resulted in the exchange’s hot wallets being drained of funds. Now, only ten days later, the exchange has revealed a plan that would allow it to restore services and return to business as usual.
📢 #Poloniex deposit and withdrawal services are set to resume in the coming week after thorough security checks by our team.
🛡️For enhanced security, we've conducted a comprehensive wallet update. After service resumption, deposit addresses for all users will be updated.… pic.twitter.com/FXQMsH2XME
— Poloniex Exchange (@Poloniex) November 17, 2023
Poloniex doubles down on recovery and boosting security
The platform’s official announcement stated that the exchange managed to make significant progress in terms of recovery. The platform is now able to run smoothly once more, despite the breach that ended up costing it an estimated $114 million.
However, in its pursuit of recovery and a return to normal business, the exchange initiated somewhat different restoration procedures. The latest update suggests advancements when it comes to service restoration, as Poloniex focused on reinstating withdrawal and deposit services for its users’ benefit.
The exchange also involved a top-tier security auditing company, tasking it with going through its security measures and helping with strengthening them. Poloniex claims that there are some efforts underway that will result in increased security prior to withdrawal reactivation. Even though the audit is still ongoing, the exchange also noted that it expects completion in a relatively short period.
In addition to restoring its services in fullness, Poloniex assured customers that its focus right now is on strengthening security in order to prevent further breaches.
The aftermath of the hack
The breach that happened on November 10 resulted in an attack on the exchange’s hot wallets, allowing the attackers to steal around $114 million, which was stolen in the form of cryptocurrencies. The funds were forwarded from the platform’s Ethereum and Tron wallets via multiple transactions.
Despite the incident, Poloniex managed to remain a top exchange, with a 24-hour trading volume of $616 million. The platform has a large user base that it built over the course of the past decade. Initially, it was launched in 2013, only to be acquired by Circle five years later, in 2018. In 2019, the exchange got several new major investors, one of whom was the founder of TRON, Justin Sun.
The attack on Poloniex is not an isolated incident, however, as a number of other major platforms suffered massive losses over the past several months. Some of the most notable ones include Deribit, Bitrue, HTX, and Gdac.
In an attempt to reduce the damage, Justin Sun offered hackers a 5% white hat bounty if they agreed to return the rest of the stolen funds. He gave the hackers a seven-day deadline to think this option through and make their decision, before involving law enforcement. He published the wallet address where the funds should be deposited, should the attackers decide to take his deal.
We are offering a 5% white hat bounty to the Poloniex hacker. Please return the funds to the following ETH/TRX/BTC wallets. We will give you 7 days to consider this offer before we engage law enforcement.
ETH Wallet: 0x176F3DAb24a159341c0509bB36B833E7fdd0a132 TRX:…— H.E. Justin Sun 孙宇晨 (@justinsuntron) November 10, 2023
