Polter Finance, a platform that lets people borrow and lend cryptocurrency caught into a Crypto hack on November 18, 2024, and over $7 million was stolen.
The hacker used TornadoCash, which lets people send cryptocurrency. Which is to hide where the stolen funds came from. They first moved the money from Ethereum (another blockchain) to the Fantom blockchain. Where Polter Finance operates. Once the money was on Fantom, the hacker used a weakness in Polter Finance’s system to steal over $7 million in digital assets.
Once Polter Finance realized what had happened through Cyvers alerts , it quickly paused its platform to prevent more money from being stolen. It also notified services that help move assets between different blockchains to prevent the stolen funds from spreading further. Polter Finance traced the stolen money to some wallets linked to Binance, a major cryptocurrency exchange.
The team is now working with authorities to figure out exactly how the hack happened and try to recover the stolen funds.
Experts believe the attack could have happened because of an “empty market” problem. It happens when a market has very few buyers or sellers. By making it easier for hackers to manipulate the system. Others think the problem might have been caused by incorrect price data used by the platform.
This hack shows the risks of using platforms that allow cryptocurrency to be moved between blockchains. Especially when privacy tools like TornadoCash are involved. These tools let hackers hide their identities, making it harder for platforms to track stolen funds. The DeFi industry must improve security to protect against future attacks like this.
Polter Finance is still investigating the hack. They have even contacted the hacker, offering to drop legal action if the stolen money is returned. The platform is currently paused while they work to fix the problem.
This incident reminds us that while DeFi offers many opportunities, it also comes with risks. The Polter Finance team is working hard to solve this issue, but better security is needed across the industry to keep users safe.