Huobi’s ‘Heco’ chain bridge drained of $87M in crypto assets

The HTX exchange has been hit by a security breach, similar to the recent Poloniex hack

article-image

ADragan/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

The bridge connecting the HTX exchange (formerly Huobi) and Ethereum was exploited for approximately $87 million in crypto assets early Wednesday.

Large quantities of ether, tether (USDT) and a wrapped version of bitcoin (HBTC) were seen leaving the bridge for a previously unused Ethereum wallet.

The suspicious transactions were first analyzed by various blockchain security firms including CertiK, Peckshield and Cyvers.

According to CertiK, the bridge’s private key was likely compromised.

“The suspicious transactions were initiated by the Huobi HECO Bridge operator wallet indicating that this wallet was compromised,” a CertiK spokesperson told Blockworks.

Read more: Crypto exchange HTX loses $8M in weekend hack

Various other ERC-20 tokens were drained, swapped for ether, and distributed to at least 8 other wallets.

Two hot wallets of HTX Global (formerly Huobi) lost funds, according to Cyvers. Board member Justin Sun confirmed the incident on X.

“HTX and Heco Cross-Chain Bridge Undergo Hacker Attack. HTX Will Fully Compensate for HTX’s hot wallet Losses,” Sun said.

Justin Sun assumed control over the Huobi Eco Chain in October 2022, Bloomberg previously reported, although Sun denied he owns a majority stake. He referred to it as a merger with the Tron and BitTorrent Chain ecosystems, which he also controls.

The primary purpose of the HECO bridge is to enable the movement of digital assets between the Huobi Eco Chain and other blockchain networks, such as Ethereum.

The HECO hack is not an isolated incident but rather part of a pattern of security lapses in blockchain projects associated with Sun. Poloniex, an exchange acquired by Sun, suffered a $100 million exploit two weeks ago, which security analysts believe also may have resulted from compromised private keys.

Poloniex officials have been in the process of negotiating with the hacker in that case.

It’s not yet clear if the two thefts are directly related.


Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.

Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter.

Get alpha directly in your inbox with the 0xResearch newsletter — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.

The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.

Tags

Upcoming Events

Salt Lake City, UT

MON - TUES, OCT. 7 - 8, 2024

Blockworks and Bankless in collaboration with buidlbox are excited to announce the second installment of the Permissionless Hackathon – taking place October 7-8 in Salt Lake City, Utah. We’ve partnered with buidlbox to bring together the brightest minds in crypto for […]

Salt Lake City, UT

WED - FRI, OCTOBER 9 - 11, 2024

Permissionless is a conference for founders, application developers, and users. Come meet the next generation of people building and using crypto.

Javits Center North | 445 11th Ave

Tues - Thurs, March 18 - 20, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

4.png

Research

This months PPGC covered four main areas. Firstly, debriefing the progress and status of the mainnet implementation of the Ahmedabad hard fork. Secondly, a retrospective on the testnet phase of the Ahemdabad Hard Fork. Thirdly, an update on PIP-36 which involves replaying failed state syncs. Lastly, PIP-47 which pushes upgrades to the Polygon Protocol Council.

article-image

Institutions to test out the settlement of “digital assets and currencies” on a network that annually carries more than 5 billion financial messages

article-image

After Bitwise’s XRP ETF filing this week, one industry watcher notes: “Politics will determine whether this happens soon or in a few years”

article-image

Plus, a look back at some of the SEC’s biggest enforcement moves under Gurbir Grewal

article-image

The forward-looking financial system is being championed by several contributors to India’s UPI digital money system

article-image

Multiple teams are pursuing integration cross-chain and off-chain

article-image

An SEC spokesperson told Blockworks the Ripple judgment clashes with Supreme Court precedent and securities laws