Persistent Cyber Attacks on Justin Sun's Crypto Platforms Result in $208M in Losses
Summary:
Justin Sun's crypto ventures, including the HTX crypto exchange, have been targeted by hackers multiple times in the past two months, suffering a combined loss of around $208 million. Notably, a major security breach on the Poloniex exchange led to a loss of $100 million, and an attack on Huobi's HECO chain bridge resulted in $86.6 million being sent to suspicious addresses. Despite Sun's assurance to compensate for all losses, the cryptocurrency community is urged to avoid these platforms. This series of events follows a civil lawsuit filed against Sun by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission in March 2023, with proceedings reportedly still underway.
Crypto-business maven Justin Sun has found his enterprises under persistent cyber assault over the past two months, with at least four major intrusions aimed at platforms linked with the cryptocurrency mogul. Sun's HTX crypto exchange, after its reshaping from Huobi on Sept. 13, 2023, saw two notable cyber invasions. Mere days after the rebranding, the first HTX attack saw hackers abscond with roughly $8 million in crypto on Sept. 24, 2023.
A second breach on HTX, resulting from a compromised hot wallet, brought about a loss of around $13.6 million and impacted the broader network of HTX, Tron, and BitTorrent. The platform, formerly Huobi, was obtained by Sun in October 2022.
Sun's other affiliated crypto platforms weren't spared either, including the Poloniex crypto-exchange owned by Sun and Huobi's HTX Eco Chain (HECO) bridge. Poloniex sustained a hefty security breach, with hackers making off with at least $100 million in cryptocurrency on Nov. 10. Sun, the owner since 2019, announced on X-platform (previously known as Twitter) that Poloniex had deactivated the wallet. Blockchain security experts CertiK posit that the incident likely resulted from a private key compromise.
The HECO chain bridge of Huobi, engineered to ferry digital assets between HECO and networks such as Ethereum, was also a victim of a large-scale breach. On Nov. 22, unidentified hackers infiltrated HECO, dispatching at least $86.6 million to dubious address.
The cumulative losses due to all four breaches over the past two months have mounted to around $208 million. Though Justin Sun, the founder of Tron, pledged to indemnify the losses incurred in all four episodes, some crypto participants are advising the community to steer clear of Poloniex and HTX, and speculating about the possible involvement in these hacks.
One commentator from the crypto space opined that Sun seemed to be "neck-deep in trouble," pointing out that Poloniex has been offline for five days, and HTX is offering a hefty 100% interest on crypto such as Bitcoin.
The conjectures persist against the backdrop of a civil lawsuit filed against Tron founder Justin Sun by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. The lawsuit accuses Sun and his corporations, including Tron and BitTorrent, of fraudulent activities and other violations of securities law in March 2023. A U.S. court had subsequently directed a summons to Sun's Singapore address regarding the matter in April 2023. According to the SEC, its legal action against Sun is still ongoing.
Published At
11/23/2023 12:37:15 PM
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