HTX hacker returns funds after 250 ETH bounty

The cryptocurrency exchange HTX (formerly Huobi) returned stolen 5,000 ETH (about $7.9 million at the time) for a hacker bounty of 250 ETH (about $409,000).

We have confirmed that the hacker has fully returned all funds, as promised, and we have also paid the hack a white hat bonus of 250 ETH. The hacker made the right choice. We would like to express our gratitude to everyone in the industry for their help! https://t.co/SwY49A25h2

— H.E. Justin Sun 孙宇晨 (@justinsuntron) October 7, 2023

Tron founder Justin Sun, who sits on the advisory board of HTX, said the hacker “made the right choice”.

“We would like to express our gratitude to all industry representatives for their help! Strengthening blockchain security and protecting user assets has never been an easy task, and we are working around the clock,” he added.

The white hat in ончейн-сообщении warned about the nature of the exploit. According to him, the hack became possible due to the leakage of keys from the exchange’s hot wallet. He advised changing the address and reducing the frequency of its use.

Earlier ForkLog reported that on September 23 an unknown hacker breached the cloud services provider Mixin Network and moved around $200 million in digital assets.

According to Immunefi, in the third quarter losses to the industry from hacks and frauds reached $685.5 million — up 59.9% from the same period last year.

Back in April, the attacker who breached the DeFi protocol Euler Finance returned nearly all of the stolen funds. In total, the hacker withdrew cryptocurrency worth $196 million from the platform.

In the same month, the attacker who targeted the Sentiment liquidity protocol sent back 90% of the assets. He exploited a reentrancy bug on the platform and stole about $1 million in digital assets.