HTX crypto exchange loses $8M worth of ETH in latest hack

November 16, 2023
Border
2
Min
HTX crypto exchange loses $8M worth of ETH in latest hack

Cryptocurrency exchange HTX, formerly Huobi, has suffered approximately $8 million of Ether (ETH) in losses following a hack on Sept. 24, the platform’s adviser and Tron founder Justin Sun confirmed on Sept. 25.

Sun claims that HTX has since identified the attack immediately, recovered the losses incurred, and said that all funds are secure. He added that they identified two wallet addresses involved in the hack.

Data from blockchain intelligence firm Arkham shows that the hacked wallet is apparently one of HTX’s hot wallets that received around $500 million in deposits from Binance since its creation in March.

“$8 million represents a relatively small sum in comparison to the $3 billion worth of assets held by our users, Sun said in a post on social media platform X (formerly Twitter). It also amounts to just two weeks’ revenue for the HTX platform.”

“As a result, all funds are secure, and trading operations have continued as usual. We promptly addressed and resolved all issues, restoring the platform to its normal state without delay,” he added.

A separate wallet belonging to Huobi sent a message to the attacker in Chinese following the day of the attack. It said that the exchange had confirmed the “true identity” of the attacker.

Sun reiterated that the platform will provide a 5% bounty, approximately $400,000, to the hacker who returns the stolen funds and a position at HTX as a security white hat advisor. Otherwise, the exchange would share the hacker’s information with law enforcement for prosecution.

The latest hack on the cryptocurrency exchange comes two weeks after the platform celebrated its 10th anniversary and rebranded from Huobi to HTX. The company announced the rebranding on Sept. 13, with “H” representing the first letter of Huobi, “T” for Justin Sun’s blockchain project Tron, and “X” meaning the exchange.

The new name’s “HT” letters also represent the exchange’s native Huobi Token (HT), while “X” is the Roman numeral for 10, which pays homage to the company’s anniversary.

The rebranding was met with mixed reactions, with most negative comments on social media questioning its similarity to FTX, the now-defunct exchange whose founder, Sam-Bankman-Fried, is facing 13 charges relating to fraud.

Throughout 2023, many cryptocurrency exchanges have suffered from numerous hacking incidents, which are suspected to have been mostly orchestrated by the North Korea-linked Lazarus Group. As a result of these attacks, the group has managed to collect a sum of $40 million worth of Bitcoin (BTC).

Similar News

other News

Featured Offer
Unlimited Digital Access
Subscribe
Unlimited Digital Access
Subscribe
Close Icon