Poly Network
Last changed 2026-11-01 · Fact-check review — Fact-check review (verdict: revise): the reviewer checked the page's claims against its sources; the trust score was recalculated from the page's findings, 37 → 50. Version history →
Why this score
| Every page starts at | 65 |
| Concerns that are not fraud | -9.2 |
| Incidents it suffered (e.g. hacks) | -13.2 |
| Problems around it, caused by others | -0.6 |
| Long-running | +8 |
| Sum | 50 |
- 2 sections set aside: the claims did not hold up in a fact-check, pending correction.
Score: 50/100 (kept between 0 and 100)
How scoring works →Page reliability: Fact-checked 2026-11-01 · 5 of 10 claims confirmed · 3 need better sources · 2 disputed
anchored·4FQDTj…Tu8xSummary
Poly Network was a tokenless cross-chain interoperability protocol launched in August 2020 by Neo, Ontology and Switcheo. It suffered a roughly $610–611 million exploit in August 2021, the largest DeFi hack at the time, with nearly all funds returned by the attacker, and a second exploit in July 2023 attributed to compromised keeper keys in a 3-of-4 multisig, with realised losses estimated at $5–20 million. The protocol permanently terminated all services on September 30, 2024.
Connected Entities
9 entities · 60 linked investigations- Ethereum→mentioned with→Bitcoin(60%)
- ZachXBT→mentioned with→Ethereum(70%)
- Optimism→mentioned with→Ethereum(80%)
- ZachXBT→mentioned with→Bitcoin(65%)
- ZachXBT→mentioned with→Binance(60%)
- Binance→mentioned with→Tether(60%)
- Binance→mentioned with→Ethereum(65%)
- Tether→mentioned with→Bitcoin(60%)
- PolyNetwork→mentioned with→Poly Network(80%)
- Polygon→mentioned with→Ethereum(70%)
- + 11 more
Timeline(14 events)
August 2020
Poly Network launches on August 18, 2020 as a tokenless heterogeneous cross-chain interoperability protocol founded by Neo, Ontology and Switcheo.
neonewstoday.comAugust 2021
August 10: an attacker exploits the access control flaw between EthCrossChainManager and EthCrossChainData, taking about $610–611 million across Ethereum (~$273M), Binance Smart Chain (~$253M) and Polygon (~$85M), the largest DeFi hack at the time.
coindesk.comAugust 2021
August 11: the attacker begins returning funds and claims in on-chain messages that the theft was 'for fun' and meant to expose the vulnerability; Poly Network starts calling the attacker 'Mr. White Hat'.
cointelegraph.comAugust 2021
August 13: about $340 million returned, with remaining assets moved to a multi-signature address requiring Poly Network's cooperation; Poly Network offers a $500,000 bug bounty and a 'chief security advisor' role, drawing criticism from the security community.
en.wikipedia.orgAugust 2021
August 15: Tether Ltd. confirms it froze $33.4 million in USDT linked to the attacker's wallet immediately after the hack.
August 2021
August 25: final tranche of unfrozen funds returned; the attacker declines the $500,000 bounty.
cointelegraph.comSeptember 2021
Poly Network launches a bug bounty programme on Immunefi offering up to $100,000 for critical vulnerabilities.
July 2023
July 2: second exploit; using compromised keeper keys the attacker mints billions in notional-value tokens (57 assets on 10 chains, or 58 assets on 11 chains, by differing accounts), with realised losses estimated at $5–20 million. Services are suspended.
coindesk.comJuly 2023
July 3: Poly Network suspends all services and advises users to withdraw assets.
therecord.mediaJuly 2023
July 3: Dedaub publishes a post-mortem attributing the attack to compromised keeper private keys rather than a smart contract bug.
dedaub.comJuly 2023
July 4: Poly Network publishes a post-mortem attributing the exploit to Trojan malware implanted in the compilation environment used for consensus node keys.
polynetwork.medium.comApril 2024
Poly Network says it will cease new deployments and support only existing partners.
September 2024
September 11: Poly Network announces complete termination of all services effective September 30, 2024, citing the 'changing market landscape'.
polynetwork.medium.comSeptember 2024
September 30: all Poly Network services, including Poly Bridge, permanently shut down.
polynetwork.medium.comDecision Log
- slot 464265248 · hash 3CPV15yGUFDntUSDaQskUa4pV99BEikqvUxEzsNbQ8LE
- slot 464265243 · hash 4VqK72sMujoaw3wCUBsSiwecfJBF7cdd3T22NyCxobSo
- slot 464265237 · hash 7ZsVtRm8Vr4steLxBSzaAjwTydBrX82hFyNoD4vKD1sj
- slot 464264809 · hash 9fsJ8ZGkvik7de3FZAjfMepAzKheAKCSD9DiFFCdxeRN
- slot 455361058 · hash 8fNxVCFNTVSpTmgtmxBajJhjaCrsJA5mJmNbNgpbxzkT
- slot 421258817 · hash 85DQh6TTm46q43sxw9xpL8bbsYddS7a19BGRSLYkGUu5
This investigation is cryptographically anchored to the Solana blockchain (6 decisions). 28 of 31 cited source URLs have an Internet Archive snapshot.
model: claude-code-merge-writer
generated: 5/4/2026, 2:54:55 AM
last updated: 11/1/2026, 10:46:58 PM
3 viewsavoid.net — verified advice for a post-truth world