Huobi Global's cryptocurrency exchange, HTX, has successfully recovered the funds stolen by a hacker in late September and has taken the unusual step of issuing a 250 Ether (ETH) bounty to the individual responsible after resolving the issue.
The incident occurred when one of HTX's hot wallets was drained of 5,000 ETH on September 25, valued at approximately $8 million at the time of the exploit. Following the security breach, the exchange managed to establish communication with the hacker and claimed to have identified their identity.
HTX, in a bid to resolve the matter without legal action, made a unique offer to the hacker. They proposed paying a 5% bounty, equivalent to around $400,000, and pledged not to pursue any legal action if the hacker returned 95% of the stolen funds before the deadline of October 2.
An update on October 7, conveyed through an X post disclosed a confirmation from Justin Sun, an investor in Huobi Global and an adviser to HTX (also associated with TRON and BTT as founder and protocol inventor), acknowledge the hacker's compliance.
Huobi confirms that not only did the hacker fully return all the funds as promised, but the exchange has taken the prerogative to provide them with a reward of 250 ETH (worth roughly $397k) for their white hat initiative.
In a parallel incident during the same week as the HTX hack, the decentralized cross-chain protocol Mixin Network was exploited for around $200 million by attackers who breached a third-party cloud service provider. Mixin Network offered a $20 million bug bounty as an incentive for the return of the stolen funds, though the likelihood of recovery appears uncertain. CoinEx also lost some $27 million to a recent hack, while a recent report from Upbit disclosed roughly 159,000 exploit attempts at the exchange's security measures.
This latest development comes amid a wave of hacking incidents in the cryptocurrency space during the third quarter of 2023. According to a recent report by blockchain security platform Immunefi, the quarter witnessed 76 hacks targeting crypto and Web3 projects and companies, a significant increase from the 30 recorded in the same period in 2022. Another report from CertiK cites how $1.34 billion has been lost to a mixture of exploits, scams, and critical vulnerabilities in the crypto sector.
Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
