Huobi Global’s cryptocurrency exchange, HTX, has successfully recovered the funds stolen by a hacker in late September and even offered a reward of 250 Ether as a token of appreciation after resolving the issue.
In this incident, one of HTX’s digital wallets was compromised, resulting in the theft of 5,000 ETH on September 25, which was valued at approximately $8 million at the time. Shortly after the hack, the exchange contacted the hacker and claimed to have identified them.
HTX eventually proposed a deal: if the hacker returned 95% of the stolen funds before the October 2 deadline, the exchange would pay a 5% bounty, totalling around $400,000, and refrain from taking legal action.
On October 7, Justin Sun, an investor and adviser to Huobi Global, shared the good news on X (formerly Twitter) and expressed gratitude to the industry for their assistance. He emphasized the importance of enhancing blockchain security and protecting user assets, acknowledging the ongoing efforts to achieve this goal.
The third quarter of 2023 has seen a surge in hacking incidents. According to a report from the blockchain security platform Immunefi, there were 76 reported hacks on cryptocurrency and Web3 projects and companies during Q3 2023, a significant increase compared to 30 hacks in Q3 2022.
Around the same time as HTX’s breach, the decentralized cross-chain protocol Mixin Network also suffered an attack resulting in the theft of approximately $200 million. In response, Mixin Network offered a $20 million bug bounty to the hackers as an incentive to return the stolen assets. However, the chances of recovering the funds seem slim.
Moreover, Anne Neuberger, the United States deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technology, suggested that North Korean hackers may have been involved in the Mixin exploit, noting similarities in their methods to previous attacks attributed to North Korea.
