Binance, Polymarket seek Polygon hard fork to recover $6.8M in stolen crypto

Polygon block producers have already frozen the stolen tokens, but a proposed hard fork would allow the funds to be recovered and returned to their owners. Binance and Polymarket have proposed the network modification to retrieve approximately 70.49 million POL tokens, worth about $6.8 million, stolen in separate security incidents.

Recovery Details

According to a Wednesday governance proposal, the recovery would cover 23.86 million POL, worth $2.31 million across four addresses associated with the Polymarket hack and 46.63 million POL, worth about $4.51 million, held in one address linked to the Binance hack.

The proposed hard fork would remove the stolen tokens from the five attacker-controlled addresses and transfer them to verified recovery wallets designated by Polymarket and Binance. The process would take place at a predetermined block without changing POL's total supply.

Implementation Timeline

Polygon block producers have already blocked transactions from the affected addresses, preventing the stolen funds from moving. However, the proposal said these are temporary measures that cannot return the funds to their owners.

The plan requires governance approval and testing on Polygon's Amoy testnet before activation. It is scheduled for discussion on Nov. 5, with no confirmed date for the mainnet hard fork.

The proposal follows Binance's record $6.3 billion hack on Oct. 29 and a separate incident in which Polymarket temporarily suspended trading after reporting that a third-party provider had been compromised.