The HTX exchange (formally Huobi) was attacked by hackers, as reported by crypto security firm CyberAlerts. They made off with 5,000 $ETH before the breach was detected.
As per current prices, the loss amounted to about $7.9million. However, according to a post on X (formerly Twitter) released by the company advisor Justin Sun, all user assets are now “safe and the platform operates completely normally”.
The news about the hack was first shared by CyberAlerts, where it alerted the public of a suspicious transaction on the crypto exchange. This was detected by the security platform’s ML-powered system.
In Sun’s most recent post, he has stated that HTX has now fully covered the losses incurred from the attack. He also assured users saying that the platform has successfully resolved all issues related to the hack.
The executive said that the team had detected the hack immediately after the incident yesterday at 6pm SGT, 24 September, and took swift action to prevent any losses. The platform was soon restored to its normal state without any delay. All funds are secure, and trading operations have continued as usual as the HTX addressed and resolved all issues promptly.
According to Sun, $8m represented “a relatively small sum in comparison to the $3 billion worth of assets held by our users”. This figure amounts to just two weeks’ of the HTX platform’s revenue.
Adding further, the advisor expressed HTX’s willingness to offer 5% of the stolen amount ($400,000 USD) as a white hat reward to encourage the hacker to return the stolen funds.
White hat hackers are ethical hackers who disclose vulnerabilities to companies in order to improve security.
HTX is also ready to hire the person involved in this attack as a security white hat advisor for the exchange if they return the fund on time. However, if it is not done within seven days, the exchange warned that it would transfer the information to law enforcement authorities for further action in order to prosecute the hacker.
The attack follows the recent rebrand of the exchange where it changed its name from Huobi to HTX on the occasion of its 10th anniversary. In doing so, it revealed its new mission to build a metaverse free port with a vision to achieve financial freedom for eight billion people on earth.
Explaining its new name, the official announcement said: “’H’ stands for Huobi, ‘T’ represents TRON with a commitment to being all in TRON, and ‘X’ stands for the exchange. Looking at HTX through the combination of HT and X, HT represents the native token of the platform while X symbolizes the exchange. Hence, HTX is an exchange with its native token of HT.”
“X”, on the other hand, also denotes the Roman numeral for 10, which pays tributes to HTX’s 10th anniversary. The platform heralded the move as “a new era” with synergy between HTX, TRON, and Poloniex. A brand new slogan was also revealed on the occasion which now goes like: “HTX, Just Trade It”.
Meanwhile, Binance’s CZ couldn’t resist commenting on HTX’s new name and unfortunate hack today…
