More than half of the $100 million worth of Ether that was stolen during the Poloniex hack in November 2023 has now been transferred through the privacy protocol Tornado Cash. The hack occurred when wallets belonging to Poloniex, a cryptocurrency exchange, experienced unauthorized outflows resulting in the loss of over $100 million worth of Ether. Despite Poloniex’s attempts to identify the hacker and offer a $10 million bounty, the stolen funds were never returned. It is believed that the incident was a result of a compromise of private keys. As a response to the suspicious outflows, Poloniex temporarily disabled the compromised wallet.
Six months later, it became apparent that the hacker had no intention of returning the funds. Blockchain investigation firm PeckShield discovered that more than half of the stolen funds had been transferred through Tornado Cash, a protocol used to anonymize assets. The hacker moved over 17,800 ETH from six different wallets into a single Tornado Cash address, totaling approximately $53.3 million at the time of the transfer.
Despite the setback, Poloniex resumed its operations and allowed investors to deposit and withdraw crypto freely. The exchange also appointed a top-tier security auditing firm to enhance the security of funds and prevent future hacks. Poloniex’s owner, Justin Sun, promised to reimburse the affected users and stated that the exchange maintains a healthy financial position and is seeking collaborations with other exchanges to recover the lost funds.