PolyNetwork
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anchored·2epGdR…5BADSummary
Poly Network was a cross-chain interoperability protocol launched in August 2020 by Neo, Ontology, and Switcheo. It suffered two major security breaches: a $610 million exploit in August 2021 (the largest DeFi hack at the time, with funds ultimately returned) and a second exploit in July 2023 in which attackers minted billions in notional value of tokens, extracting an estimated $10–20 million in real assets. The protocol permanently terminated all services on September 30, 2024.
Connected Entities
1 entities- + 2 more
Timeline(11 events)
18 August 2020
Poly Network launched by founding members Neo, Ontology, and Switcheo as a tokenless heterogeneous cross-chain interoperability protocol.
10 August 2021
Attacker exploits access control vulnerability in EthCrossChainManager and EthCrossChainData smart contracts, draining approximately $610 million across Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, and Polygon — the largest DeFi hack at the time.
11 August 2021
Attacker begins returning stolen funds and claims via embedded on-chain messages that the theft was intended to expose the vulnerability. Poly Network refers to the attacker as 'Mr. White Hat.'
13 August 2021
Approximately $340 million in funds returned; remaining assets moved to a multi-signature address requiring Poly Network cooperation for transfer.
25 August 2021
Final tranche of stolen funds returned. Poly Network confirms all assets recovered. The hacker declines the $500,000 bug bounty.
September 2021
Poly Network launches a bug bounty program on Immunefi offering up to $100,000 for critical vulnerabilities.
2 July 2023
Second major exploit: attackers allegedly compromise 3 of 4 Relay Chain keeper private keys via Trojan virus or insider action, minting billions in notional-value tokens across 11 chains. Actual realized losses estimated at $10–20 million. Services immediately suspended.
4 July 2023
Poly Network publishes post-mortem attributing the 2023 exploit to Trojan-implanted malware in the compilation environment used to generate consensus node keys.
April 2024
Poly Network announces it will cease new deployments and transition to support-only mode for existing partners.
11 September 2024
Poly Network publishes notice of complete termination of all services effective September 30, 2024, citing 'changing market landscape.'
30 September 2024
All Poly Network services, including Poly Bridge, permanently shut down.
Decision Log
- hash: uUyQ9LjodCEZXJegAHHKyck2C9jpd81i2bKTZweQrZH
This investigation is cryptographically anchored to the Solana blockchain (1 event). 20 of 24 cited source URLs have an Internet Archive snapshot.
model: claude-sonnet-4-6
generated: 5/4/2026, 2:54:29 AM
last updated: 9/1/2026, 3:53:18 AM
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