Chinese cryptocurrency millionaire Justin Sun has promised to launch an 'epic airdrop' of free tokens to Poloniex and HTX users. These two centralized crypto exchanges, funded by Sun, were recently subjected to separate attacks and suffered losses of at least $ 238 million.
Sun posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, to extend his apologies to affected users and reassure them of the security of their assets. Sun said in his statement:
“As HTX and Poloniex get closer to opening deposits and withdrawals, we will launch a legendary airdrop for users with assets. I offer my deepest apologies to users affected by the hacker attacks on HTX and Poloniex. “We will cover the damage and all assets are safe.”
While airdrops are a common occurrence in decentralized finance, they are almost unheard of for centralized exchanges like Poloniex and HTX. Sun's airdrop promise marks a significant departure from the general rules.
Sun had also assured that Poloniex would “fully refund the affected funds” within an hour of the attack. He suggested that the losses could be covered by Poloniex's operating income. In a public offer, Sun offered a 5% white hat reward to the Poloniex attacker and gave law enforcement seven days to evaluate the offer before getting involved.
In a separate incident, HTX and its affiliated cross-chain infrastructure Heco Bridge suffered simultaneous attacks on November 22. According to Certik, Heco Bridge lost approximately $87 million in assets, while HTX's wallets suffered losses of $26 million, bringing the total loss to $113 million. HTX reported that $30 million from their wallet was at risk.
*This is not investment advice.