Polygon Proposes Network Hard Fork To Recover $6.8M In Stolen POL Tokens

TL;DR

• Recovery Proposal: Binance and Polymarket support a Polygon hard fork that would recover 70.49 million POL tokens worth about $6.8 million from five attacker-controlled addresses.
• Fund Transfers: The plan would move stolen assets to verified recovery wallets without changing POL’s total supply, replacing temporary address restrictions with a permanent recovery mechanism.
• Governance Process: The proposal requires governance approval and testing on the Amoy testnet, with discussions scheduled for Nov. 5 and no confirmed mainnet activation date yet.
  

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Binance and Polymarket have backed a proposal for a hard fork of the Polygon network aimed at recovering roughly 70.49 million POL tokens, worth about $6.8 million, following separate security incidents. The plan seeks to return funds linked to addresses associated with the attacks without altering the overall token supply. According to the governance proposal published on Wednesday, the recovery effort would affect five wallets currently holding the stolen assets. The proposal marks one of the most significant recovery discussions on the Polygon network since the incidents were reported.

Recovery Plan Targets Five Blocked Addresses

Under the proposal, approximately 23.86 million POL, valued at $2.31 million, would be recovered from four addresses linked to the Polymarket incident. Another 46.63 million POL worth around $4.51 million would be recovered from a single address linked to the Binance attack. The Polygon proposal outlines a process that would remove the tokens from the attacker-controlled wallets and transfer them to verified recovery addresses designated by the affected platforms.

The planned recovery would occur at a predetermined block height. Importantly, the proposal states that the process would not change the total supply of POL. Instead, the hard fork would simply reassign ownership of the affected tokens to approved recovery wallets.

On Polygon, block producers have already blocked transactions from the five addresses involved. These restrictions have prevented further movement of the funds, but the proposal notes that blocking transactions alone cannot restore the assets to their rightful owners.

Governance Approval Still Required

For Polygon, the recovery effort remains subject to governance approval before any action can be taken. The proposal is scheduled for discussion on Nov. 5 and must also undergo testing on the Amoy testnet before activation. The Polygon community will review the technical and governance considerations before deciding whether to proceed. According to the proposal, a mainnet deployment date has not yet been confirmed. Any implementation would require successful testing and approval through Polygon governance processes.

Proposal Follows Recent Security Incidents

The Polygon proposal comes after Binance suffered a record $6.3 billion hack on Oct. 29. It also follows a separate event in which Polymarket temporarily suspended trading after reporting that a third-party provider had been compromised. If approved, Polygon would use the hard fork as a mechanism to help recover the affected assets. For now, Polygon stakeholders are awaiting governance discussions and testnet results before any final decision is made on moving forward with the recovery plan.