Cryptocurrency trade HTX (previously Huobi) has disclosed the restoration of the crypto funds stolen by a hacker in late September. The crypto firm has additionally honored its 5% white hat bonus supply to the hacker after reclaiming the looted funds.
On September 25, the HTX trade succumb to a vulnerability, and 5,000 ETH have been drained from one among its scorching wallets. Following this exploit, the crypto firm contacted the attacker and claimed it had confirmed their identification.
On the time, HTX requested the return of the stolen funds and provided the attacker a 5% white hat bonus. Nevertheless, this supply got here with an ultimatum of seven days, which elapsed on October 2, 2023.
HTX Pays Hacker 250 ETH White Hat Reward
On Saturday, October 7, HTX adviser Justin Solar confirmed – by way of a submit on X (previously Twitter) – that the trade has acquired your entire funds stolen by the hacker. On this submit, Solar assured that the hacker had been paid a white hat reward of 250 ETH (about $410,000), as initially promised.
Solar added:
Strengthening blockchain safety and defending consumer property isn’t a simple process, and now we have been working tirelessly! Offering full safety for consumer property is all the time our purpose to attempt for! We’re grateful for the continued assist of our customers and neighborhood!
We’ve got confirmed that the hacker has absolutely returned all funds, as promised, and now we have additionally paid the hack a white hat bonus of 250 ETH. The hacker made the appropriate selection. We wish to specific our gratitude to everybody within the business for his or her assist! https://t.co/SwY49A25h2
— H.E. Justin Solar 孙宇晨 (@justinsuntron) October 7, 2023
Curiously, the HTX hacker left a message by way of one of many restoration transactions. It’s believed that the attacker was attempting to inform the crypto trade how they managed to empty one among its scorching wallets and the best way to keep away from future occurrences.
The attacker stated:
Your system scorching pockets non-public key leak, it is best to change system scorching pockets tackle and scale back the system scorching pockets charge.
In the meantime, HTX despatched its personal message alongside the 250 ETH white hat bounty. “You could have made the appropriate selection. Please submit a safety vulnerability evaluation report back to the e-mail in order that we will keep away from comparable incidents sooner or later. Your privateness might be protected,” the on-chain textual content learn.
$330 Million Misplaced To Crypto Exploits In September
September wasn’t notably one of the best month for the cryptocurrency business, particularly concerning safety. Though the current asset restoration by HTX gives some reduction, the quantity recovered pales in comparison with the overall worth of crypto misplaced to hacks and exploits prior to now month.
In keeping with information from blockchain safety agency Certik, round $332 million in crypto property have been stolen by way of exploits, exit scams, and flash assaults in September 2023. Exploits particularly accounted for over 98% of this determine ($329.8 million), whereas lower than $2.5 million was misplaced to rug pulls and flash mortgage assaults.
Combining all of the incidents in September we’ve confirmed ~$332M misplaced to exploits, hacks and scams.
Exit scams have been ~$1.9M
Flash loans have been ~$0.4M
Exploits have been ~$329.8M
See extra particulars under 👇 pic.twitter.com/DMFN9LWU8V
— CertiK Alert (@CertiKAlert) September 30, 2023
Notably, crypto trade CoinEx International fell sufferer to an exploit, ensuing within the lack of practically $70 million in crypto property. A number of weeks later, Mixin Community suffered essentially the most important assault in September, with $200 million drained from the decentralized finance protocol.
Much like the HTX Alternate, Mixin Community took the technique of providing a bug bounty award ($20 million) in trade for the hacker returning the stolen items.
The cryptocurrency whole market cap on the each day timeframe | Supply: TOTAL chart on TradingView
Featured picture from Medium, chart from TradingView
