Hacker behind $600 million crypto heist claims they did it ‘for fun’
A person claiming to be the hacker behind one of the biggest cryptocurrency heists of all time says they stole the funds “for fun.”
More than $600 million worth of crypto was stolen in the cyberattack, which targeted a decentralized finance platform called Poly Network.
Decentralized finance — DeFi, for short — is a fast-growing space within the crypto industry that aims to reproduce traditional financial products like loans and trading without the involvement of any middlemen.
While it has attracted billions of dollars in investment, the DeFi space has also given rise to new hacks and scams. For example, a token backed by billionaire investor Mark Cuban recently dropped from $60 to several thousandths of a cent in an apparent “bank run.”
Poly Network is a platform that looks to connect different blockchains so they can work together. A blockchain is a digital ledger of transactions that’s maintained by a distributed network of computers, rather than a central authority.
On Tuesday, a hacker exploited a flaw in Poly Network’s code which allowed them to steal the funds. According to researchers at blockchain security firm SlowMist, Poly Network lost more than $610 million in the attack.
Poly Network then pleaded with the hacker to return the money and, sure enough, nearly half of the crypto haul was returned by Wednesday.
In a Q&A embedded within a digital currency transaction Wednesday, a person claiming to be the anonymous hacker explained their reasoning behind the hack — “for fun.”
“When spotting the bug, I had a mixed feeling,” the person said. “Ask yourself what to do had you facing so much fortune. Asking the project team politely so that they can fix it? Anyone could be the traitor given one billion!”
“I can trust nobody!” they continued. “The only solution I can come up with is saving it in a _trusted_ account while keeping myself _anonymous_ and _safe_.”
The person also gave a reason for why they returned the funds, claiming: “That’s always the plan! I am _not_ very interested in money! I know it hurts when people are attacked, but shouldn’t they learn something from those hacks?”
Tom Robinson, chief scientist at blockchain analytics firm Elliptic, said the person writing the Q&A was “definitely” the hacker behind the Poly Network attack.
“The messages are embedded in transactions sent from the hacker’s account,” Robinson told CNBC. “Only the holder of the stolen assets could have sent them.”
CNBC could not independently verify the authenticity of the message and the hacker, or hackers, have not been identified. SlowMist said its researchers had tracked down information on the attacker’s IP and email information. In the Q&A, the hacker claimed they took care to ensure their identity was “untracable.”
Jensen Huang, NVIDIA founder and CEO, has a Q&A session at a press conference during the APEC CEO summit on October 31, 2025 in Gyeongju, South Korea.
Woohae Cho | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Even Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang couldn’t save the tech and artificial intelligence trade this week.
The chip giant’s talismanic leader trumpeted “off the charts” chip sales and dismissed talk of an “AI bubble,” and for a while, the tide lifted all boats.
“There’s been a lot of talk about an AI bubble,” Huang said during an earnings call this week. “From our vantage point, we see something very different.”
The buzz from the blowout report quickly reversed, sending the AI winners deeply into the red — and few beneficiaries were left unscathed.
Every member of the Magnificent 7, except for Alphabet, was tracking for a losing week, with Nvidia, Amazon and Microsoft staring down the biggest losses.
Amazon and Microsoft have led the group’s drop lower, falling about 6% this week. Meanwhile, Alphabet has gained nearly 8%. The search giant is also the only megacap of the group on pace for November gains thanks to a boost from the launch of Gemini 3.
Oracle, which is another major Nvidia customer, slumped about 10%. The chipmaker also supplies major model developers such as OpenAI and Anthropic.
Chip stocks have also declined amid the broader tech market turmoil. Advanced Micro Devices and Micron were on pace for 17% losses. Marvell Technology has slumped about 10%. Quantum computing stocks Rigetti, IonQ and D-Wave have dropped at least 10%
CoreWeave, which buys and rents out Nvidia’s chips in data centers, initially soared on the chipmaker’s earnings report, but swiftly reversed course. The company’s stock is looking at an 8% blow this week.
AI fever was cooling in the runup to Nvidia’s earnings report on Wednesday, and investors looked to the print to alleviate fears that the AI bubble was on shaky ground. Since the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022, the stock has helped power the market to new all-time highs.
But concerns have mounted in recent weeks as tech stocks hit stretched valuations.
Major investors, including Bridgewater’s Ray Dalio told CNBC Thursday that the market is definitely in a bubble.
Much of the worries have stemmed from a boom in capital expenditures spending to support AI, with few signs of a payoff in view for many of the players.
Investor Michael Burry recently accused some of the biggest cloud and infrastructure providers of understating depreciation expenses and estimating a longer life cycle for their chips, calling it “one of the more common frauds of the modern era.”
Earlier this month, Burry revealed bets against Nvidia and Palantir.
Shares of the software analytics company, which supplies AI tools to the government and businesses, are down 11% this week. The stock has shed nearly a quarter of its value this month.
WATCH: Bridgewater founder Ray Dalio: We are definitely in a bubble, but that doesn’t mean you should sell
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