Justin Sun raises bounty for Poloniex hacker to $10 million

In a message to the Poloniex hacker who breached the exchange, Justin Sun said that the team had confirmed his identity, and offered to return the stolen assets for a $10 million reward.

According to Sun, law-enforcement agencies from China, the United States and Russia are already involved in the case.

If the attacker does not transfer the funds by November 25, law enforcement from several countries will begin acting, he warned.

One user offered Sun help identifying the attacker in exchange for reimbursement of 386 ETH lost in the Euler Finance DeFi protocol hack for $196 million in March.

“The hacker is not from Russia or Poland,” he noted, hinting at the available data.

On November 10, Poloniex lost nearly $125 million in cryptocurrencies as a result of the attack. Sun said there had been successful identification and freezing of part of the assets tied to the hacker’s addresses. He gave the hacker a week to return the stolen funds for a reward equal to 5% of the amount, about $6.25 million. Otherwise, Sun threatened to involve law enforcement.

He also said that the losses suffered by the exchange are within the range it can cover from operating income.

On November 17, the Poloniex team announced that deposits and withdrawals would resume ‘in the coming week.’ According to the statement, a comprehensive wallet update was carried out after the incident, and several days would be needed for a ‘thorough security review.’

? #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

Sun, as part of a group of investors, acquired Poloniex in 2019 from Circle.

The founder of Tron is credited with control over another exchange—HTX (formerly Huobi).

In September, the platform lost 5,000 ETH ($7.9 million at the time) in a hot-wallet attack. Approximately two weeks later the hacker returned the stolen assets for a reward of 250 ETH.