Polygon has received a proposal to recover approximately 70.49 million POL, worth $6.5 million, stolen during separate security incidents involving Binance and Polymarket.
Summary
- A Polygon Labs validator-support team member has proposed a hard fork to recover approximately 70.49 million POL linked to the Polymarket and Binance security incidents.
- The proposal covers 23.86 million POL associated with Polymarket and 46.63 million POL associated with Binance, valued at approximately $6.5 million using October 29 prices.
- Polygon block producers have restricted transfers from five identified addresses, but the existing restrictions do not return the funds.
- The proposed hard fork would transfer the blocked POL to verified recovery wallets without increasing the cryptocurrency’s total supply.
- The proposal is scheduled for discussion on November 5 at 14:30 UTC. If approved, development and testing could take roughly two weeks.
In a November 4 proposal, Parvez03, a member of the Polygon Labs Validator Support Team, suggested a coordinated hard fork of the Polygon Proof-of-Stake network. The change would return the stolen tokens to verified wallets controlled by the affected companies.
The proposal covers approximately 23.86 million POL linked to Polymarket and 46.63 million POL associated with Binance. Both amounts remain restricted after Polygon’s block producers prevented transactions from five identified addresses.
The proposed recovery is scheduled for discussion during the Polygon Protocol Governance Call on November 5, before any decision on implementation.
Polygon hard fork proposal targets $6.5 million in stolen POL
The proposed network upgrade would transfer stolen POL from five blocked addresses into recovery wallets designated by Binance and Polymarket.
Four addresses associated with the Polymarket incident hold approximately 23.86 million POL. Another address linked to Binance contains 46.63 million POL.
The proposal values the combined balance at approximately $6.5 million, using POL’s October 29 price of $0.0924.
Under the proposed changes, the network would remove the balances from the listed addresses and credit the same amounts to the institutions’ verified recovery wallets.
No additional POL would be created, leaving the cryptocurrency’s total supply unchanged.
The developers would implement the transfers at a predetermined block, before processing other transactions at that point.
The proposal describes the intervention as an “extreme action that should not be reproduced commonly.”
Its author argued that recovering funds from attacker-controlled wallets without their private keys requires a change to the blockchain’s operating rules.
Binance and Polymarket funds remain blocked after separate hacks
The recovery proposal follows two security incidents reported on October 29 and 30.
During the Polymarket incident, approximately 28 million POL was involved, although the proposed recovery covers only the balances identified in four blocked wallets.
As crypto.news previously reported, the prediction market temporarily restricted trading after a third-party service provider was compromised.
Polymarket later restored its international platform and said affected users would receive compensation.
The Binance incident occurred separately, with the exchange reporting unauthorized withdrawals across multiple blockchains.
A Binance hot wallet transferred approximately 46.63 million POL and 6.19 million USDT to an attacker-controlled address.
Tether subsequently froze the USDT, while Polygon block producers restricted transactions involving the stolen POL.
The Binance security breach affected assets valued at approximately $6.3 billion, according to the exchange’s assessment.
Polygon’s proposed recovery concerns only the identified native POL balances, not the full amount affected by either incident.
Why Polygon wants to replace the existing wallet restrictions
Following the attacks, all four Polygon block producers added the identified addresses to their transaction block lists.
The restrictions have prevented transfers, but the proposal warns that they cannot return the assets to their owners.
Each block producer currently reads its restrictions when starting its software, requiring restarts or other operational changes whenever the lists are updated.
The proposal states that the attacker attempted another transaction on October 30, offering a transaction fee worth roughly 219,450 POL.
It further alleges that the attacker contacted validators offering cash payments in exchange for assistance moving the funds.
Polymarket reportedly attempted to contact the attacker through an onchain recovery channel but received no response.
The proposal therefore recommends transferring the identified balances through a one-time protocol change instead of keeping them indefinitely restricted.
Its author rejected creating a general recovery mechanism, arguing that permanent authority to move user funds would raise concerns about control over blockchain assets.
Polygon governance to review recovery plan on November 5
The proposed hard fork will be presented at the Polygon Protocol Governance Call on November 5 at 14:30 UTC.
Approval would allow developers to prepare a client update and test the balance transfers on Polygon’s Amoy test network.
The proposal estimates that development and rehearsals could be completed within approximately two weeks after approval.
Before activation, Binance and Polymarket would need to demonstrate control of their designated recovery wallets and confirm the addresses in writing.
Validators, exchanges, infrastructure providers and other node operators would then need to install compatible software before the selected activation block.
Nodes that fail to upgrade could continue following an incompatible version of the blockchain.
The proposal identifies this as a potential chain-split risk and calls for advance notice and testing before activation.
Its activation conditions require governance approval, continued enforcement of the block lists, consistent incident reports and a final review of the affected balances.
No activation block or client release has been selected. The proposal states that Polygon’s other major contracts and previously recorded blockchain transactions would remain unchanged.
