Justin Sun's HTX Exchange and HECO suffer $85m exploit

HTX exchange, formerly Huobi Global, along with HECO Chain bridge, just witnessed another hack in the past day. The entities, both owned by Tron founder Justin Sun, have reported losses amounting to $85 million. However, some observers seem to be unsure of the legitimacy of these hacks, claiming them to be exit scams.

Justin Sun's HTX hacked, again

Over the past month, Justin Sun has witnessed the second major attack on one of his companies. First, it was the Poloneix exchange, which lost over $125 million, and today, HTX and HECO Chain bridge lost $85 million.

The news was confirmed by Justin Sun himself, who stated,

"HTX and Heco Cross-Chain Bridge Undergo Hacker Attack. HTX Will Fully Compensate for HTX's hot wallet Losses. Deposits and Withdrawals Temporarily Suspended. All Funds in HTX Are Secure, and the Community Can Rest Assured. We are investigating the specific reasons for the hacker attack. Once we complete the investigation and identify the cause, we will resume services.

Assets including LINK, ETH, and USDT were stolen from the entities, and HTX alone witnessed the loss of $13.6 million worth of crypto assets from three of its hot wallets.

While the identity and cause of the hack remain unknown at the time of writing, blockchain security and intelligence firm Arkham Intelligence has offered a white hat bounty. The bounty valued at 10,000 ARKM is worth approximately $4,115 and has a deadline of 30 days.

Interestingly, a part of Crypto Twitter, which does not seem to be too charmed by Justin Sun, has been supporting a thesis that this potentially was not a hack but an exit scam.

Speculation on HTX hack as a scam

According to a rather popular user, WhaleWire, the hack could likely be an exit scam perpetrated by none other than Justin Sun himself, along with the help of his team. The user noted,

"Justin Sun is again claiming it is a "hack" - Just like he did last week when his exchange, Poloniex, was "hacked" for $125 million. In reality, there were zero hacks; this is merely insider exit scamming using the backdoors they built years ago.

He went on to draw parallels to FTX and Mt. Gox, which pulled a similar stunt, wherein a hack resulted in the loss of a sum of assets days before the exchanges collapsed.

While the claims do not seem to hold much weight, given the absence of even an iota of evidence, it is important to address them in order to minimize the spread of misinformation in the industry.