The HTX exchange, linked to Chinese mogul Justin Sun, faced a $258 million net outflow after restarting operations following a significant hack. Data from DefiLlama shows this outflow between November 25 and December 10, signaling client concerns after last month’s security breach. HTX reported a $30 million loss in crypto tokens due to the breach, temporarily halting withdrawals and deposits.
An HTX spokesperson downplayed the outflow, stating it’s “a small fraction of our total reserves,” asserting the platform’s stability. They emphasized commitment to ensuring a secure and smooth trading experience.
Justin Sun is associated with Poloniex and HECO Bridge, the latter enabling blockchain transfers for HTX. Both Poloniex and HECO suffered hacks in November, resulting in about $200 million in crypto theft.
Following the November incident, Sun announced an ongoing investigation and pledged to “fully compensate for HTX’s hot wallet losses.” Earlier in September, hackers took $8 million from the platform.
Despite these challenges, HTX, previously Huobi, maintains a substantial trading volume, ranking among the top 20 exchanges based on CoinMarketCap figures as of December 10th.
Investors in the crypto space are more attentive to exchange flows and reserves after FTX’s collapse last year with substantial financial discrepancies.
HTX’s reserves mainly consist of Bitcoin (about 33%) and TRX tokens from Tron blockchain (around 32%), a project initiated by Sun in 2017. HTX’s exchange coin HT and a Sun-associated token, stUSDT, make up 14% and 12%, respectively.
TRX faces US fraud allegations against Sun, with the Securities and Exchange Commission accusing him of market manipulation. Sun defended against these claims, stating the lawsuit “lacks merit.”
Security firm BlockSec noted HTX’s recovery of the $8 million stolen in September but highlighted that hackers still seem to control the $30 million from the recent breach.
