Polygon Weighs Hard Fork to Recover 70.49M POL From Two Major Crypto Hacks

Polygon is considering an exceptional network upgrade to recover 70.49 million POL linked to the Polymarket and Binance security incidents. A new Polygon Improvement Proposal (PIP) calls for a coordinated hard fork that would move the tokens from five attacker-controlled addresses into verified recovery wallets. The proposal, however, still requires governance approval and validator coordination. If accepted, the implementation could take approximately two weeks.

Polygon Targets 70.49 Million POL

The Polygon Improvement Proposal, published November 4, identifies approximately 23.86 million POL across four addresses associated with the Polymarket incident and another 46.63 million POL in an address linked to Binance.

Together, the five addresses hold approximately 70.49 million native POL. The proposal values that amount at roughly $6.5 million, using the token’s October 29 reference price of $0.0924. This figure is separate from Binance’s broader security incident, which the exchange estimated involved approximately $6.34 billion in digital assets.

Polymarket’s October 29 incident involved a compromised third-party monitoring script that targeted users’ active sessions. Its post-incident report said the company would return $3.9 million to affected traders.

Binance separately reported a major security breach and said attackers moved POL and other assets from an affected hot wallet. Its incident update said approximately $6.34 billion in digital assets were impacted.

Hard Fork Proposed to Return Stolen Funds

Polygon block producers have already placed the five addresses on the Bor transaction block list, preventing certain transfers. However, the restriction does not provide a mechanism to return the funds. The list is loaded when block producers start their software, requires operational updates and does not cover every transaction type.

The PIP says an attacker attempted a transaction carrying a fee of approximately 219,450 POL and contacted validators with offers of payment to unblock funds.

The proposed hard fork would change account balances directly at a designated block. It would set the listed attacker addresses’ native POL balances to zero and credit equivalent amounts to recovery wallets verified by Polymarket and Binance.

The proposal identifies six conditions supporting the exceptional intervention:

• Public acknowledgment of the incidents by the affected parties.
• Blocking of the addresses by all block producers.
• A substantial amount of funds involved.
• Clear on-chain links to the affected organizations.
• A recovery request from the victims.
• No competing claims following public disclosure.

Governance Approval Remains Essential

The proposal is scheduled for discussion at the Polygon Protocol Governance Call on November 5 at 14:30 UTC. Approval would be followed by software development, testing on Polygon’s Amoy network and coordination with validators, exchanges and infrastructure providers. The document estimates that roughly two weeks would be workable after approval.

Polygon considered leaving the funds blocked, negotiating with attackers and creating a permanent recovery mechanism. It rejected those alternatives, arguing that a general-purpose recovery feature could give the protocol excessive control over user assets.

Conclusion

Polygon’s proposal presents a difficult test for blockchain governance. Recovering 70.49 million POL could return funds to the organizations affected by two security incidents, but changing account balances without private keys raises important questions about decentralization and user control. The proposed hard fork is narrowly limited to five addresses and requires formal approval. Its outcome could influence how blockchain networks respond when stolen assets are traced but conventional recovery methods cannot return them.