Justin Sun gives new ultimatum to Poloniex hackers, offers $10m bounty

Tron founder Justin Sun has increased the white hat bounty, offering the Poloniex hackers a $10 million reward if they return the stolen funds, adding that the team has already unmasked their identity.

In an on-chain message to the hackers, Justin Sun gave them until Nov. 25 to return the stolen funds, as law enforcement from the United States, Russia, and China were already involved. According to Sun, the assets “have been marked for tracking and cannot be used, adding that “financial counterparties will be frozen.”

Cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex suffered an attack on Nov. 10, on its hot wallets, resulting in the loss of over $120 million in various crypto assets on the Ethereum, Bitcoin, and Tron networks. 

Sun said that the team would make full reimbursement, and offered a five percent white hat bounty to the attackers. This gives them a seven-day ultimatum to refund the stolen assets, which elapsed on Nov. 17.

Sun’s latest message, meanwhile, warned that police forces in the U.S., Russia, and China would take action if the hacker refused to cooperate. With a fresh deadline and an increased bounty reward, it remains to be seen if the attackers will eventually return the funds. 

Meanwhile, Poloniex announced on Nov. 17, that the crypto exchange is looking to resume withdrawal and deposit services in the coming week, stating that the firm will provide “further announcement regarding the specific resumption time.”

Poloniex was acquired by Circle in 2018. Sun, along with a group of investors, bought into the company back in 2019.