HTX Hacker Makes Surprising Move, Returns Stolen Funds To Exchange

In September, HTX, Huobi’s global exchange, suffered an $8 million attack in which the attacker stole 4,997 ETH.

The exchange’s CEO, Justin Sun, urged the attacker to return the funds within a week in exchange for a 5% “white hat” bounty to avoid legal action. While the stolen ETH was covered by the exchange’s reserves, the pursuit of the attacker continued.

On October 7, the stolen funds were returned to the exchange’s hot wallet, a move confirmed by on-chain data and security researcher ZachXBT.

What’s noteworthy is that the full amount was returned to the exchange before the hacker received their bounty.

The reason for this arrangement remains unclear, but it may have been done to eliminate the possibility of future legal action, as the attacker could prove they no longer controlled the stolen funds.