In a surprising turn of events, the hacker responsible for the attack on the HTX Exchange (formerly Huobi Global) in late September has returned the entire 4,999 ETH that was siphoned from the platform.
According to reports from Lookonchain, the hacker sent back the stolen funds to HTX’s hot wallet through two transactions, accompanied by a message that read as follows: “Received your message.white hat bonus to 0x1Fc8674A51D6b97C968BE384337519CE7003152B .your system hot wallet private key leak, you should change the system hot wallet address and reduce the system hot wallet rate.”
HTX Global Hacker just returned the stolen funds of 4,999 $ETH ($8.2M). @justinsuntronhttps://t.co/fIxrm01a4zhttps://t.co/gHM0Yjqlqs pic.twitter.com/zX1mdDsRpi
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) October 7, 2023
This unexpected act of returning the stolen cryptocurrency comes on the heels of HTX’s attempt to negotiate with the hacker. Shortly after the attack on September 25th, the exchange reached out to the hacker, offering them the opportunity to keep 5% of the stolen funds as a bug bounty reward, with the condition that they return the money by October 2nd. The exchange claimed to have identified the hacker and stated that they would involve law enforcement if the deadline was not met.
Currently, there are various speculations surrounding the identity of the hacker and the methods employed to breach HTX’s security. Some theories suggest that the individual responsible may have had insider knowledge, potentially being a current or former employee of the exchange. However, as of now, no official confirmation has been provided by any involved parties.
We have confirmed that the hacker has fully returned all funds, as promised, and we have also paid the hack a white hat bonus of 250 ETH. The hacker made the right choice. We would like to express our gratitude to everyone in the industry for their help! https://t.co/SwY49A25h2
— H.E. Justin Sun 孙宇晨 (@justinsuntron) October 7, 2023
Based on the transaction records on Etherscan, HTX exchange has transferred a bonus of 250 ETH ( 5%) to the hacker.
Read more:
- HTX Global (Huobi) Loses $7.9 Million In Security Breach
- CoinEx Faces Major Security Breach: Over $27M Potentially Compromised Across ETH, TRX, MATIC, And XRP Wallets