HTX exchange loses $13.6M in hot wallet hack: Report

HTX, formerly Huobi Global, suffered an estimated loss of $13.6 million as part of a $86.6 million exploit against the HECO Chain bridge on Nov. 22. 

According to a report from blockchain security firm Cyvers, the losses stem from three compromised hot wallets, with users and exchange assets swapped for Ether (ETH) and distributed to various Ethereum addresses thereafter. Among other coins and tokens, Cyvers said that 1,240 ETH, 7.3 million USDT (USDT), 1.78 million USD Coin (USDC), and 62,200 LIN (LINK) were drained during the attack. 

Justin Sun, de-facto owner of HTX and founder of Tron and BitTorrent — both related entities — stated shortly after the exploit, “HTX Will Fully Compensate for HTX’s hot wallet Losses. Deposits and Withdrawals Temporarily Suspended. All Funds in HTX Are Secure, and the Community Can Rest Assured.”

HTX and Heco Cross-Chain Bridge Undergo Hacker Attack. HTX Will Fully Compensate for HTX’s hot wallet Losses. Deposits and Withdrawals Temporarily Suspended. All Funds in HTX Are Secure, and the Community Can Rest Assured. We are investigating the specific reasons for the hacker…

— H.E. Justin Sun 孙宇晨 (@justinsuntron) November 22, 2023

Earlier in the day, the HECO Chain bridge, a cross-chain bridge created via the merging of the Tron and BitTorrent ecosystem in 2020, was drained of $86.6 million due to an allegedly compromised blockchain operator.

In September, HTX was hacked for $8 million in another hot wallet exploit. At the time, Sun also claimed that “all user assets are SAFU and the platform is operating completely normally.” The hack took place less than one month after its rebranding from Huobi Global to HTX, as announced during Token2049 in Singapore. 

Data from Nansen shows that wallets identified as belonging to HTX hold a combined $2.08 billion in user and corporate assets. Within the past 24 hours, the exchange had $1.3 billion in spot trading volume.

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