Binance Steps in to Investigate $8 Million Hack on Crypto Exchange HTX
Summary:
After the recent cyberattack on display currency exchange, HTX, leading to an $8 million loss, Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao has enlisted his Binance cybersecurity team to investigate the matter. HTX's offer of a "white-hat bonus" to the hacker and Justin Sun's reassurances about future security measures have been highlighted. The recent similar event regarding the Decentralized peer-to-peer network, Mixin Network's loss is also reported.
The digital currency exchange, HTX, which rebranded from Huobi, endured a cyber attack leading to a loss of $8 million. In response, Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao extended the services of the Binance cybersecurity team to probe into the incident. The rapid tracking and recovery of pilfered digital currencies is critical as hackers tend to obscure their illegal activities by deploying mixers or shifting the stolen assets to privacy tokens. Cyvers, a blockchain analytics platform, detected a malicious theft of 5,000 Ether (ETH) from an HTX hot wallet on September 24.
In an attempt to reduce the financial damage, HTX proposed a “white-hat bonus” equaling 5% of the stolen funds, approximately $400,000. The hacker was given a week-long deadline to accept the proposal. The terms of the benefit were disclosed in Mandarin (Chinese).
On a less serious note, CZ quipped about the similarities between the rebranded HTX and the notorious digital currency exchange FTX, managed by Sam Bankman-Fried. However, the parallels ended there as HTX tangled with a hack, whereas FTX allegedly scammed its users.
CZ's security team's involvement was publicly confirmed in response to a tweet from Justin Sun, the founder of Tron, who acts as an advisor to HTX. Sun also reassured that HTX would bear all losses incurred by its clientele, stating, "$8 million when considered against our user's asset worth of $3 billion is fairly insignificant. It's equivalent to about two weeks' revenue for HTX."
Sun also vowed to implement real-time checks and balances to forestall such mishaps in the future. Although he dismissed claims of owning prominent stakes in HTX, Sun has pledged live broadcasts in English and Chinese to discuss exchange security matters. Binance didn't immediately respond for a statement on the HTX investigations.
A day prior to HTX's hack, a cloud service provider's database of the Decentralized peer-to-peer network, Mixin Network, was compromised, resulting in nearly $200m in losses. An independent appraisal by the Web3 SaaS analytics platform, 0xScope, uncovered a historical link between the assailant and the Mixin Network.
Mixin Network reinstated deposits and withdrawals only after confirming and rectifying the vulnerabilities. The strategy to compensate the lost assets wasn't instantly disclosed.
Published At
9/26/2023 8:16:29 AM
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