Asking is a good idea.Ploy Network, a decentralized finance platform (DeFi), pleaded Tuesday morning with hackers to return $600 million in cryptocurrency it claimed was stolen earlier that day. Poly Network claimed that the theft included wrapped bitcoin (WBTC), wrapped ether (WETH), and other cryptocurrency. If confirmed, it would be the biggest in crypto's turbulent history.Poly Network wrote "Dear Hacker" in an open letter shortly after the hack became public. "We would like to communicate with you and ask you to return the hack assets."The Poly Network protocol allows different blockchains to communicate with each other and is part of the growing DeFi space. This is especially relevant as the hack was conducted across three different chains: Binance Chain and Ethereum.Poly Network claimed that the hack was due to a vulnerability between contract calls. This will invariably raise questions about the security of larger DeFi spaces.Decentralized finance, for those who aren't familiar, promises a future in which financial transactions can be made without the need for traditional intermediaries such as banks, or even more traditional ones like cryptocurrency exchanges. DeFi, which uses smart contracts, promises to decentralize finance.People are responding. DeFi Pulse is a DeFi analytics website that estimates there are approximately $80 billion in DeFi at the time this article was written.Not surprisingly, major players in cryptocurrency have reacted quickly to the news of the theft and locked down some of the stolen funds. According to the CTO of Tether (USDT), which is a controversial stablecoin that was stolen, he had frozen approximately $33 million of USDT after the hack.The CEO of Binance's cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, promised to "proactively assist."Poly Network will probably need all the support it can get.In an open letter, the company stated that the amount of money they had hacked was the largest in history. This will be considered a major economic crime by law enforcement in any country and you will be prosecuted.The company asked hackers to get in touch and provided an email address so they could reach them.SEE ALSO: Yats is a friendly investor who pays thousands of dollars to own emojisWe inquired at the company whether it had received any response from hackers and if they had any information about who could have stolen the funds. We did not receive an immediate response.The hack does serious damage to DeFi's reputation, regardless of whether any of the funds were ever returned.
