Huobi Hacked For $8 Million Worth Of ETH, Offers Hacker 5% Bounty

According to Arkham Intel, the Huobi crypto exchange platform (HTX) fell victim to a hacking incident resulting in the theft of 5000 ETH, valued at approximately $8 million. The hacker reportedly moved 1,000 ETH to a separate wallet, 0x799, shortly after compromising the platform and has since remained silent.

Huobi Resolves Breach, Offers Hacker Lucrative Deal For Stolen ETH

Justin Sun, the Founder of TRON and an Advisor to Huobi, confirmed the incident on X (formerly Twitter), stating that HTX suffered a loss of 5,000 ETH due to the hack. Sun stated:

HTX has suffered a loss of 5,000 ETH ($8 million USD) due to a hacker attack. HTX has fully covered the losses incurred from the attack and has successfully resolved all related issues. All user assets are SAFU and the platform is operating completely normally.

Sun reassured users that HTX had fully covered the losses and resolved all related issues. He emphasized that user assets were secure and that the platform operated normally. 

According to Sun, the stolen amount of $8 million represents a relatively small fraction compared to the $3 billion worth of assets held by HTX users and is equivalent to just two weeks’ revenue for the platform.

Sun further stated that the hack was detected immediately after the incident on September 24th. HTX swiftly took action to prevent further losses and promptly addressed all issues, restoring the platform to its normal state immediately. Trading operations have continued without interruption.

Notably, as an incentive for the hacker to return the stolen funds, HTX offers a 5% white hat reward of $400,000. Additionally, if the hacker returns the funds, they will be considered for a position as a security white hat advisor for HTX. On this matter, Sun claimed: 

We are willing to offer 5% of the stolen amount (400,000 USD) as a white hat reward to encourage the hacker to return the stolen funds. If the hacker returns the funds, we will also hire them as a security white hat advisor for HTX.

However, if the hacker fails to return the funds within seven days, HTX will transfer the information to law enforcement authorities for further action and potential prosecution.

Overall, Justin Sun’s statement regarding the recent hack suffered by Huobi’s HTX platform reassured users that the losses incurred had been fully covered and all related issues had been successfully resolved.
Huobi

The native token of the exchange, HT, is currently trading at $2.44, reflecting a 1.3% decline in the past 24 hours following the revelation of the hack that occurred on Sunday. 

Featured image from Shutterstock, chart from TradingView.com 

China’s Ban On Crypto-Assets Forces Huobi Mining Pool To Rotate 100k Bitcoin

The Chinese crackdown on mining activities has awakened a lot of decisions and actions. Many miners are already trooping to the US, the new mining hub, to continue their operations. Recently, the NDRC (National Development & Reform Commission) in China seized more than 10,000 mining rigs in Inner Mongolia.

The report even disclosed that the operation was the 45th time that the watchdog has carried such out. Given the losses that miners incur in the wake of these incidents, many forward-thinking companies are protecting their interests.

One of such companies to take proactive action is Huobi Global, a crypto exchange with millions of users, including Chinese citizens. The first step the company took was to restrict the Chinese citizens on its platform.

Related Reading | New To Bitcoin? Learn To Trade Crypto With The NewsBTC Trading Course

Now, mainland china residents can no longer access the platform. As a result, Huobi Global is currently moving funds to fill the withdrawal needs of the clients. Also, it plans to stop all Chinese accounts gradually until December 31.

Miners Move Bitcoin To Support Withdrawal Needs

Huobi Global is occupying the eighth position amongst the largest Bitcoin Pools. However, now that they’ve restricted Chinese citizens, the miners have to move their funds worth $4.21 Billion to meet the withdrawal needs.

Bitcoin is now gradually recovering its previous losses | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com

Apart from this Bitcoin fund movement, there were massive movements from Ethereum wallets on September 26, amounting to 800,000 ETH or $2.29 billion from ETH whales.

Related Reading | Miner Refunds The Giant Sum Of 7,626 Ethereum Mistakenly Sent By Bitfinex

The crackdown from the Chinese government is causing havoc in many pools as many exchanges are no longer allowing new entrants. The Huobi Global exchange is amongst the exchanges affected by this development.

Featured Image by Pexels – Charts by TradingView