After taking advantage of a smart contract feature in the bridge tool of the cross-chain protocol PolyNetwork on Sunday morning, attackers created billions of various tokens.By locking value on one network and releasing it on another, bridges allow users to transfer tokens between multiple blockchains via smart contracts.Attackers on the PolyNetwork were probably able to modify the bridge’s operation so that it would issue tokens for a network that wasn’t actually there.
Attackers created 999 trillion shiba inu (SHIB), 24 billion binance usd (BUSD), and bnb (BNB) on the Metis blockchain, as well as millions of other coins on different networks including Avalanche and Polygon.This means that shortly after the hack, the attackers’ wallet had tokens valued at nearly $42 billion (on paper).But the attackers were unable to profit from the enormous token stockpile due to an appalling lack of liquidity.Developers for Metis stated that there was no “sell liquidity available” for the BNB and BUSD, and they had locked the METIS tokens that had been fraudulently issued on the PolyNetwork bridge.
However, the hacker was able to exchange 94 billion SHIB tokens for 360 ether (ETH), 495 million COOK for 16 ether, and 15 million RFuel for 27 ether after finding liquidity for other illegally created tokens, according to analytics firm Lookonchain.Lookonchain continued, “We detected that hackers are moving assets and $1 ETH to new wallets, perhaps for sale.
The assault on Sunday was the second time that attackers had chosen to target PolyNetwork.Following the suspected theft of a private key used to sign a cross-chain message, the protocol was hacked for $600 million in August 2021, a then-record hack.Bridges are crucial for facilitating the transfer of tokens valued at billions of dollars between different networks, but they are also susceptible because they have historically been the top target for assaults and hacks in the crypto sector.