Hackers robbed HTX crypto exchange and HECO network for $110 million

[Lord777]

Justin Sun reported on a hacker attack on the HTX exchange's hot wallet and the Heco Bridge cross-chain. All operations on the platforms are suspended.

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…
— H.E. Justin Sun 孙宇晨 (@justinsuntron) November 22, 2023

https://twitter.com/x/status/1727304656622326180

Sun assured that the trading platform will compensate for the lost funds at its own expense. Details of the incident will be released after the investigation is completed.

PeckShield researchers were among the first to notice the problem. Initially, they noticed the withdrawal of 10,145 ETH (~$19 million) from the Heco bridge.

Update: Total $86.6M worth of cryptos
-346,994 $TUSD
-42,399 $LINK (~$601,641)
-619,000 $USDC
-173,200 $UNI ($931,816)
-346.9M $SHIB (~$2.8M)
-489 $HBTC ($18.8M)
-42M $USDT
-10,145 $ETH (~$19M)
— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) November 22, 2023

https://twitter.com/x/status/1727290028064436539

After that, the hacker continued to withdraw other cryptocurrencies — the total damage amounted to about $86.6 million.

PeckShield also noted that the transfer of funds was confirmed by the operator, so the scenario of its compromise is being considered.

According to Igor Igamberdiev, head of research at Wintermute, there was an additional $23.4 million exploit of the HTX exchange itself. He claims that the withdrawal of funds occurred immediately after the attack on the cross-chain bridge and according to a similar scheme.

Heco Bridge was launched to provide low-cost inter-network communication between Ethereum and the HTX-supported Heco Chain blockchain. The project was a combination of Tron protocols and the BitTorrent bridge ecosystem.

 

[Teacher]

Hackers who hacked the Heco Bridge cross-chain in 2023 laundered ~$40,392 ETH through the Tornado Cash mixing service. This was noticed by PeckShield experts.

#PeckShieldAlert As of today (22 Mar. 2024, UTC), #HECOBridge exploiters — labeled addresses — have transferred ~$40,391.8 $ETH (equivalent to ~$145.7m) to #TornadoCash within the last 8 days pic.twitter.com/ZfrDvbRQCm
— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) March 22, 2024

https://twitter.com/x/status/1771094450288132397

The value of the cryptocurrency transferred over the past eight days at current market prices was $145.7 million.

The bridge allows the movement of assets between Ethereum and the Heco Chain, a blockchain supported by the HTX exchange. The trading platform's protocol and hot wallet were attacked in November.

PeckShield initially noticed the withdrawal of 10,145 ETH from the Heco Bridge. According to their estimates, the damage at that time amounted to ~$111 million in several cryptocurrencies.

Igor Igamberdiev, head of research at Wintermute, suggested that there was an additional HTX exploit worth $23.4 million. According to him, unauthorized transactions occurred immediately after the attack on the Heco Bridge and according to a similar scheme.

HTX advisor Justin Sun confirmed the hacking of the trading platform's wallet and cross-chain protocol.

The exploit was the fourth in 2023 by the amount of damage in the crypto industry. In total, project losses resulting from more than 600 incidents reached $2.61 billion, according to PeckShield.

In August 2022, the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control added Tornado Cash to the sanctions list. According to the agency, since the creation of the service in 2019, attackers have transferred more than $7 billion worth of cryptocurrencies through it.

In the same month, the Dutch authorities detained the developer of the protocol, Alexey Pertsev.