Huobi (HTX) Suffers $7.9 Million Crypto Hack

Renowned cryptocurrency exchange formerly known as Huobi, now rebranded as HTX, fell victim to a substantial hack on September 24, as disclosed by a report from blockchain analytics platform Cyvers.

The cyberattack resulted in a staggering $7.9 million worth of cryptocurrency being drained from the exchange’s coffers.

HTX identifies hacker

The breach came to light when a known Huobi hot wallet issued a message in Chinese to the perpetrator. According to the message’s contents, it became evident that the exchange had identified the attacker and proposed an unconventional resolution.

HTX offered to allow the hacker to retain 5% of the pilfered funds as a “white-hat bonus” on the condition that the remaining 95% be returned promptly.

🚨Red Code🚨Yesterday, our ML-powered system detected a suspicious transaction involving @HuobiGlobal and @HTX_Global.
Despite our attempts to reach out, we received no response. An EOA received 5K $ETH $7.9M from @HuobiGlobal's hot wallet.

🔍 This morning, we spotted… pic.twitter.com/3oqHhAVi8P

— 🚨 Cyvers Alerts 🚨 (@CyversAlerts) September 25, 2023

The incident unfolded on September 24 at precisely 10:00 am UTC when the suspected Huobi hot wallet, with the address 0x2Abc22eb9A09EbBE7b41737CCde147F586EfeB6A, executed a transaction sending 4,99 Ether, equivalent to approximately $7.9 million, to an address devoid of any previous transaction history.

Subsequently, the following day, another wallet associated with Huobi reached out to the alleged perpetrator, addressing them in Chinese. A Google translation of the message read:

We have confirmed your true identity. Please return funds to 0x18709E89BD403F470088aBDAcEbE86CC60dda12e. We will provide you with a 5% white hat bonus. This offer is valid for 7 days and ends on October 2, 2023. If you do not return the funds by the deadline, we will request judicial intervention.

Cyvers promptly reported the attack on September 25, corroborating that the wallet sending the message was indeed affiliated with Huobi, as confirmed by blockchain analytics platform Arkham Intelligence. The same wallet in question had been listed on a Huobi support page, substantiating its connection to the exchange.

Read also! Mark Cuban’s Hot Wallet Hacked, Loses Nearly $900,000

User funds remained secure

Justin Sun, an investor in Huobi Global, confirmed the hack. Assuring users of the exchange’s stability, he emphasized that user funds remained secure, and HTX was operating without disruptions. Sun reassured the crypto community, stating,

HTX has fully covered the losses incurred from the attack and has successfully resolved all related issues.

Notably, the compromised wallet appeared to be one of HTX’s hot wallets, having received approximately $500 million in deposits from Binance since its inception in March, according to data from Arkham Intelligence.

Justin Sun went a step further, revealing that HTX was prepared to offer the hacker to join their ranks as a security white hat advisor in exchange for the return of the stolen assets.

In the aftermath of the incident, the exchange’s native token, HT token, exhibited minor fluctuations, currently trading at $2.44, with a marginal decline of 1.24% in the past 24 hours, as reported by CoinMarketCap.

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