Crypto land has been transfixed this week on a brazen and deeply strange heist of about $600m. It has been a cinematic experience, the new-age version of a bank robbery flick, replete with a colourful thief, a squad of digital vigilantes and any number of armchair detectives watching it all play out in real time.
This kind of drama is uniquely crypto. In a traditional bank siege, for example, an observer might need to rely on news helicopters circling overhead for updates. In a crypto heist, you can see it all unfold directly from your own smartphone.
Poly Network, a project that is looking to link up blockchains, the digital ledgers that underlie the crypto asset industry, began ringing the alarm bell on Wednesday afternoon London time. It claimed thousands of digital tokens were stolen and published the address of the virtual “wallets” of the alleged hacker.