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Crypto Exchange HTX Lost $8M of Ether Due to a Hack, Justin Sun Says

HTX advisor Justin Sun said the amount stolen equates to two weeks worth of revenue, and the firm has fully covered the losses.

Updated Sep 25, 2023, 3:26 p.m. Published Sep 25, 2023, 2:54 p.m.
Laptop hacker (Towfiqu Barbhuiya/Unsplash)
Laptop hacker (Towfiqu Barbhuiya/Unsplash)

HTX, formerly Huobi, has been hacked with a total loss of 500 ether (ETH) worth around $8 million, according to HTX adviser and Tron founder Justin Sun.

The incident occurred on Sunday and was identified immediately. HTX has fully covered the losses, and funds are safe, Sun added on social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter).

The hacked wallet appears to be one of HTX's hot wallets, with it receiving around $500 million in deposits from Binance since its creation in March, according to Arkham data.

"$8 million represents a relatively small sum in comparison to the $3 billion worth of assets held by our users. It also amounts to just two weeks' revenue for the HTX platform," Sun wrote on X.

"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."

Sun continued by saying that HTX is willing to give the hacker a $400,000 bug bounty to return the stolen funds. He also sweetened the deal by adding that HTX would hire the hacker as a security white hat advisor.

The exchange's native token, HT token, is currently trading at $2.43 having slumped by 1.24% in the past 24-hours, according to CoinMarketCap.

UPDATE (Sept. 25, 15:24 UTC): Updates to add more details about the bug bounty offered to the hacker.

Oliver Knight

Oliver Knight joined CoinDesk as a news reporter in April 2022. Before joining CoinDesk, Knight was the Chief Reporter at Coin Rivet for three years. Having graduated with a journalism degree from Birmingham City University, Knight went on to work at various sports publications before diving into the world of Bitcoin in 2014. He does not have any crypto holdings.

picture of Oliver Knight