HTX Hacker Returns 5,000 ETH After Exploit: Receives $400,000 ‘Whitehat Bonus

HTX Hacker Returns 5,000 ETH After Exploit: Receives $400,000 ‘Whitehat Bonus

Crypto News – According to on-chain data, the hacker who exploited the crypto exchange HTX (formerly Huobi) on September 24 has returned approximately 5,000 ETH stolen during the incident.

The stolen funds were returned through two separate transactions, one involving around 4,000 ETH and the other approximately 1,000 ETH.

Justin Sun, an advisor for HTX and the founder of Tron, confirmed this recovery on the platform X (formerly Twitter). He also mentioned that a “whitehat bonus” of 250 ETH (equivalent to $400,000) was paid to the hacker. Sun stated, ‘We have verified that the hacker has completely returned all the funds as promised, and in recognition, we have granted the hacker a whitehat bonus of 250 ETH. The hacker made the right choice, and we extend our gratitude to everyone in the industry for their assistance.’

During the return of the funds, the hacker sent an on-chain message which stated, ‘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.’

In response to the hacker upon sending the bonus, HTX communicated, ‘You have made the right choice. We have already disbursed the whitehat bonus to 0x1Fc8674A51D6b97C968BE384337519CE7003152B. Please submit a security vulnerability analysis report to the email htxsafe@htx-inc.com to help us prevent similar incidents in the future. Your privacy will be protected.’

HTX Hack

Following the hack last month, Justin Sun confirmed that HTX had lost approximately 5,000 ETH (equivalent to $8 million) due to a hacker attack. He shared this information on the platform X, stating, ‘HTX has suffered a loss of 5,000 ether…due to a hacker attack. HTX has fully covered the losses incurred from the attack and has successfully resolved all related issues.’

Sun noted that while the stolen amount was relatively small compared to the $3 billion in assets held by its users, it still represented about two weeks’ worth of HTX’s revenue. He emphasized that HTX was prepared to offer a 5% reward of the stolen amount, which amounted to $400,000, as an incentive for the hacker to return the funds.”