$5 Million Reward: Justin Sun’s Bold Move Against Poloniex Attackers

Crypto exchange platform Poloniex was attacked by a bad actor, losing over $60 million of its customer’s funds. The Justin Sun led the exchange and launched an investigation, which remains ongoing, to determine the identity of the attackers.

Poloniex Makes Offering To Attackers

The crypto analytics platform Nansen data indicates that over $68 million in tokens left Poloniex over the past day. The image below shows that the attacker stole assets in ETH, BADGER, REN, OKB, NEXO, and 170 other tokens.

Poloniex Crypto Justin Sun ETH ETHUSDT

Nansen also confirmed that the biggest losses were suffered in top assets, Ethereum and USDT, with around $11 million each. Other tokens such as ELON, USDC, SHIB, and GLM saw inferior losses but still in the millions of dollars.

A few hours ago, as mentioned, the exchange launched an investigation and Justin assured its users that the platform keeps a “healthy financial position.” In that sense, Sun, also the founder of blockchain TRON, claimed that users will be reimbursed for their losses.

The platform is currently exploring a partnership with other crypto exchanges to recover the fund. Sun stated:

We are offering a 5% white hat bounty to the Poloniex hacker. Please return the funds to the following ETH/TRX/BTC wallets. We will give you 7 days to consider this offer before we engage law enforcement.

In the crypto community, some users praised these efforts to recover the fund and encouraged the attacker or attackers to take the bounty for “pointing out vulnerabilities” in the platform’s security. However, other users were critical of the measure. One community member stated:

(…) a white hat doesn’t steal funds and then ask for a bounty, whatever you’re promising, law enforcement will be involved. It’s like saying you can beat someone to death but if you take them to the hospital you’ll be safe (…).

Who Is Behind The Poloniex Attack?

It remains to be seen if the attacker will accept the offer. In the crypto space, many cyberattacks have been conducted by state-sponsored hacker groups, such as the infamous Lazarus Group, allegedly working for the North Korean Government.

According to a report from our sister website, Bitcoinist, this group stole billions of dollars from the nascent industry in the past two years. The terrorist group is allegedly a key component of the country’s nuclear program. Jason Bartlett, a researcher at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), said:

Cryptocurrency offers Pyongyang a new kind of currency that is substantially less regulated and understood by national governments, financial institutions, and international organizations.

However, cryptocurrencies also operate as an important tool for law enforcement agencies to track down and cut funding for rogue entities. Due to blockchain technology’s transparency, some criminals stay clear of digital assets and crypto exchanges.

As of this writing, Ethereum (ETH) trades at $2,077 with a 7% profit in the last 24 hours.

Poloniex ETH ETHUSDT Crypto

Cover image from Unsplash, chart from Tradingview

Justin Sun Will Now Publicly Trade Meme Coins Like PEPE, Best Time To Copy Trade Him?

Justin Sun, the vocal crypto supporter and co-founder of Tron and chief executive officer (CEO) of BitTorrent, says he will begin actively trading meme coins like PEPE. 

Justin Sun Eying Meme Coins

In a tweet on May 11, Sun, known for being a crypto whale, actively holding and transferring colossal sums of coins in the past, said he would begin actively trading meme coins and promising projects straight from his public cryptocurrency address. 

However, as a disclaimer, all profits will be donated to charity. 

He also added that though he might decide to buy certain coins and get exposure to a promising meme coin project, the said coin or project, regardless of its potential, may not be listed on Huobi or Poloniex. These are some of the early and most liquid cryptocurrency exchanges listing hundreds of tokens that Sun occupies an influential executive seat.

It is still unclear which project Sun has an eye on. At the same time, it could not be determined which of his crypto addresses the co-founder will use when trading meme coins. 

Although Sun might be the co-founder of Tron, he has not shied from engaging in other projects deployed on public networks like Ethereum and others.

Tron Co-founder Warned By Binance

Following a warning from Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of Binance, the world’s largest exchange by client count and trading volumes, Sun reversed a $56 million transfer he had made in early May. There were concerns that Sun was planning a token grab of SUI, the native currency of the Sui Network. 

WhaleAlert flagged Sun’s bulk $56 million transfer in TUSD. Before Zhao said, Binance would take action if he block-bought SUI from the Binance Launchpool. The exchange clarified that it wanted a fair airdrop to include active retailers and not “just a few crypto whales.” 

Through the Launchpool, users can stake their crypto assets like SUI, providing liquidity, before receiving staking rewards. 

SUI Price On May 11| Source: SUIUSDT On Binance, TradingView

Sun later apologized for the huge transfer, saying it was in error. The real intention, he clarified, was in the market-making of TUSD, a stablecoin. The Tron founder said:

Regrettably, some of our team members were not fully aware of the intended purpose for these funds and inadvertently used a portion of them to participate in exchange campaigns. Upon realizing this error, we immediately contacted the exchange team and arranged for a full refund of the funds.

It is not immediately clear how Sun will proceed in trading and how the community will react to his purchases once he starts picking out worthy meme coin projects. Even so, what’s clear is that his addresses, like those of other influential crypto founders like Ethereum’s co-founder Vitalik Buterin, will be actively tracked and copied.