Crypto exchange HTX, formerly known as Huobi, has fallen victim to a cyberattack, resulting in a loss of 5,000 Ether ETH/USD, equivalent to $8 million USD, the exchange's adviser and TRON TRON/USD founder Justin Sun said on Monday.
Despite the significant sum, Sun assured users that the platform has already covered the losses and rectified all related issues.
The incident comes just weeks ahead of Benzinga's Future of Digital Assets conference on Nov. 14, where cybersecurity and the resilience of crypto platforms are expected to be hot topics of discussion.
Sun went on to provide context, noting that the $8 million loss is relatively minor when compared to the $3 billion in assets held by HTX users.
He also mentioned that the stolen amount equates to merely two weeks of revenue for the exchange.
The breach was detected promptly after its occurrence at 6 p.m. SGT on Sept. 24.
Sun praised the swift response of the HTX team, emphasizing that immediate actions were taken to ensure no further losses.
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"All funds are secure, and trading operations have continued as usual," Sun tweeted.
In response to the attack, HTX has proposed a "white hat reward" of 5% of the stolen amount, which is $400,000 USD, to incentivize the hacker to return the pilfered funds. If the hacker complies, HTX has expressed interest in hiring them as a security adviser to bolster the platform's defenses.
However, Sun also issued a stern warning: if the stolen funds aren't returned within a week, HTX will hand the case over to law enforcement for further investigation and potential prosecution.
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