Crypto Exchange HTX Hit by $7.9M Exploit 

An official announcement from the Seychell-based crypto exchange HTX ( former Huobi Global) revealed that the firm suffered from a malicious attack. The incident was revealed by Cyvers, a famous blockchain analytic firm. Analysts from Cyvers stated that the terrible attack resulted in loss of assets worth approximately $7.9 million.

Hackers Attack Huobi 

The incident was reported on Sunday, September 24, at 10:00 am (UTC) after a message in Chinese language was shared from the Huobi hot wallet to the attacker. After a thorough review of the nature of the message, the Huobi team claims to identify the attacker.

In the meantime, the Huobi team held an internal discussion seeking to develop a solid recovery plan. The recovery plan of the troubled crypto exchange will be backed by a fair deal to recover the lost asset. The report indicates that the Huobi team will offer the attacker 5% of the lost funds, which equates to around $3.9k as a “white-hat reward.” The attacker will be rewarded if he agrees to return 95% of the lost asset.

Huobi Recovery Plan

A review of the Cyvers report illustrated that the suspicious Huobi hot wallet transferred 4999 Ether (ETH), which translates to $7.9 million, to an unknown address. On Monday, September 25, a Huobi wallet holder shared an intriguing message to the attacker in Chinese.

This message raised eyebrows among the Huobi community, who demanded to know more details concerning the far-fetched note. In response to the community, the Huobi team promptly copied the message on Google Translate.

The search results revealed that the letter comprised of a request to return the funds issued by Huobi to the attacker. The crypto exchange scheduled the deadline for the refund to October 2. Huobi stressed that failure to meet the deadline will lead to legal action.

The message purported to be sent by Huobi attracted speculation from different blockchain analytics firms. A report from Arkham Intelligence revealed that Huobi’s hot wallet sent the message under investigation. In a separate statement, Cyvers validated the Arkham report after confirming that the message was currently available on the Huobi support page.

Huobi Token Declines in Wake of the Hack

In an X post, the renowned crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun confirmed that the exchange suffered a loss of 5,000 ETH, amounting to $8 million from an attack. Sun highlighted that the hack had minimal impact on user accounts. It implies that the customer’s assets are safe.

According to Sun, the HTX team has managed to control the situation, and the exchange has resumed operation. In his address, Sun admitted that the $8 million lost constitutes a small portion of the total customer’s assets, which amounts to around $3 billion. Considering HTX is the third largest crypto exchange by daily trade volume, the executive stated the firms could generate that amount lost in two weeks.

In the meantime, the HTX has compensated for the losses incurred during the attack. Also, the embattled crypto exchange has restored its operation entirely without delays.

Referring to the deal offered by the Huobi to the attackers, Sun stated that the hacker would receive approximately $400000 after returning the stolen funds. Subsequently,  the hacker will be recruited to join Huobi as a security white hat advisor.

News concerning the hack has propelled Huobi native token HT to establish a dribbling trend after experiencing a dip of 1.07% to trade at around $2.44. According to CoinMarkeCap data, the daily trading volume surged to $13,108,427, a 388.05% increase within a day.