Share this article
Most Influential 2021: Polynetwork Hacker
For educating us on the difference between “hack” and “exploit.”
By CoinDesk
Updated May 11, 2023, 6:26 p.m. Published Dec 7, 2021, 2:08 p.m.
There is still much that is unknown about the largest decentralized finance (DeFi) security breach to date, the sophisticated attack that drained $600 million worth of cryptocurrencies from the China-based PolyNetwork, including the identity of the “hacker” (or hackers) and their underlying motivations. It was a story that riveted the industry, in part because the “Polynetwork hacker” ultimately returned all the stolen funds while communicating with the public the whole way through.
The article is part of CoinDesk’s 2021 Most Influential list.
“Mr. White Hat,” as the hacker referred to themselves in one message, said they attacked the cross-blockchain platform to call attention to an unidentified vulnerability and always intended to return the funds (minus a small bug bounty). But it’s just as likely he/she/they were forced to do the right thing after several crypto exchanges and USDT stablecoin issuer moved to blacklist the funds.
Additional context: The crypto industry differentiates between a “hack,” which means breaking into a system, and an “exploit,” which leverages or makes vulnerable existing code.
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
NFT Project Pudgy Penguins Takes Over Las Vegas Sphere in Holiday Campaign
The NFT brand’s animated segments will air on the Sphere across Christmas week, signaling the crypto company's move into real-world consumer markets.
What to know:
- Pudgy Penguins will run an ad campaign at the Las Vegas Sphere during Christmas week, one of the few crypto brands to secure a spot at the high-profile venue.
- The NFT project, which launched on Ethereum in 2021, has expanded into physical toys and digital gaming as part of a broader consumer push.
- Pudgy Penguins briefly overtook Bored Apes in floor price earlier this year and recently launched its PENGU token on Solana, now trading on major exchanges.
Top Stories
