HTX

On September 24, 2023, HTX, a Seychelles-based cryptocurrency exchange formerly known as Huobi, was breached, losing $7.9 million (4,999 ETH) from its hot wallet, as reported by Cointelegraph. Detected at 10:00 UTC by blockchain analytics firm Cyvers, the attacker transferred funds to a previously unused address (0x2a…), per Etherscan.

HTX, with a $1.6 billion daily trading volume per CoinMarketCap, covered the losses, restored services within hours, and claimed all user funds were safe, per Justin Sun’s X post (@justinsuntron). Sun offered a 5% ($400,000) white-hat bounty and a security advisor role if the hacker returned the funds by October 2, but the funds were later recovered, per BlockSec.

HTX identified the attacker and sent an on-chain message demanding repayment, per Cyvers. No user assets were affected, and trading continued normally, per Reddit (r/CryptoCurrency).

Occurring days after HTX’s rebranding from Huobi, this hack, alongside Cypher Protocol’s $1 million exploit, fueled skepticism about the exchange’s security.

HTX’s swift recovery and transparency turned a potential debacle into a footnote, but repeated breaches—$115 million across HTX and HECO in November—cast shadows, urging exchanges to fortify hot wallets and treat trust as their most precious asset in crypto’s unforgiving arena.