Solomon Samuel In the past two months, hackers have targeted Justin Sun’s crypto firms with at least four big exploits. Two hacks have occurred since Sun’s HTX crypto exchange rebranded from Huobi on Sept. 13, 2023.
On Sept. 24, 2023, an anonymous attacker stole approximately $8 million in crypto from HTX just days following the rebranding.
Hot wallet breaches cost HTX $13.6 million in its second hack, affecting the HTX, Tron, and BitTorrent ecosystems. Huobi became HTX, which Sun bought in October 2022.
Sun-owned cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex and Huobi’s HTX Eco Chain (HECO) bridge have also been hacked. Poloniex was hacked on Nov. 10, stealing at least $100 million in cryptocurrencies.
HTX’s interest offering for Bitcoin. Source: HTX Earn
Sun, who bought Poloniex in 2019, announced on X (previously Twitter) that Poloniex had disabled the wallet. The incident was likely a “private key compromise,” according to blockchain security firm CertiK.
Huobi’s HECO chain bridge, which transfers digital assets between HECO and Ethereum, was also widely hacked. Hackers stole $86.6 million from HECO on Nov. 22 and sent it to questionable locations.
“Most likely, the reasons are private key leakage in all cases […] These projects definitely should improve the procedure for storing sensitive information like private keys, and if there is no need for such amounts of liquidity, keep part of the funds in cold wallets.”
All four hacks in the past two months cost the platforms $208 million. Despite Tron founder Sun’s vow to refund losses for all four events, several crypto fans have advised staying away from Poloniex and HTX, questioning who was involved in the breaches.
This crypto analyst said Sun is “clearly in big trouble,” given that Poloniex has been down for five days and HTX offers 100% interest on Bitcoin. “We can see that all these attacks have the same target:
According to the representative, the recurring thefts may be caused by an “insider who is leaking information.”
The US Securities and Exchange Commission sued Tron founder Sun and his companies, including Tron and BitTorrent, for fraud and other securities law violations in March 2023.
A U.S. court summoned Sun’s Singapore address in April 2023. The SEC lawsuit against Sun continued in August.