5,000 Ethereum (ETH) stolen from HTX, the cryptocurrency exchange formerly known as Huobi, was surprisingly returned by hackers.
The hackers left a note in the refund process, advising HTX to change the system hot wallet address and reduce the system hot wallet rate due to the leakage of the private key.
On September 25, HTX suffered a security breach that resulted in a loss of 5000 ETH, equivalent to approximately $8 million. The incident was immediately detected and addressed by the HTX team. According to HTX advisor and Tron founder Justin Sun, the firm fully covered the losses, ensuring all funds were safe.
The compromised wallet appears to be one of HTX's hot wallets and has received approximately $500 million in deposits from Binance since its inception in March.
Despite the significant loss, Sun reassured users on social media platform he said.
In response to the incident, trading at HTX continued as usual.
Sun had announced that HTX was ready to offer the hacker a $400,000 bug bounty in exchange for the return of the stolen funds. The hacker also added a wallet address for the reward in the note he left to the exchange during the refund process.
*This is not investment advice.