Following the multi-million hacks against HTX and Poloniex, Justin Sun, a Chinese-born business executive associated with these crypto firms, has promised an "epic airdrop" to users impacted by these exploits.
Sun, an official representative of both crypto exchange platforms, shared his plans to not only cover the losses but also reward users.
"As HTX and Poloniex approach opening deposit and withdrawal, we will initiate an epic airdrop for users with assets. Please stay tuned! My deepest apologies to the users affected by the hacker attacks on HTX and Poloniex. We will cover the loss and all assets are SAFE," Sun announced via a post on X.
As HTX and Poloniex approach opening deposit and withdrawal, we will initiate an epic airdrop for users with assets. Please stay tuned! My deepest apologies to the users affected by the hacker attacks on HTX and Poloniex. We will cover the loss and All assets are are SAFE.
— H.E. Justin Sun 孙宇晨 (@justinsuntron) November 24, 2023
Sun's announcement was later confirmed by HTX, formerly known as Huobi, which noted that the airdrop amount would be based on a screenshot of the users' 30-day average asset balance in USDT, also dubbed "Rockets" by the company.
Moreover, users who hold HTX tokens and Tron (TRX), Bitcoin (BTC), and Ether (ETH), will have the values of their Rockets multiplied.
"To express our gratitude for your ongoing support and trust, we have specially planned an extraordinary token airdrop event to reward all our users. The airdrop event will utilize a snapshot of users' Rockets, where Rocket values are determined by the 30-day average balance measured in USDT. 1 USDT equals 1 Rocket. Users holding quality assets such as HT, TRX, BTC, and ETH will have their Rocket values multiplied," HTX said in a post.
Unfortunately, it is unclear if HTX will compensate any user account balances, but the exchange said that "the tokens for the airdrop will be drawn from a premium asset that is about to be listed on HTX. We will unveil the specific details of this event in early December."
Despite staying silent on the details of the HTX hack, cybersecurity firm Cyvers revealed that "two hot wallets of HTX Global have been impacted by this incident, involving 1,240 ETH, 7.3 million USDT, 1.78 million USDC, and 62,200 LINK," before adding, "hacker has distributed all the assets to different EOAs with 1 ETH for gas fee per each address. Then transferred all ETH to [other] EOAs."
🚨UPDATE🚨Today, we have flagged multiple suspicious transactions with @HTX_Global's hot wallet. Shortly, hack was confirmed by @justinsuntron
— 🚨 Cyvers Alerts 🚨 (@CyversAlerts) November 22, 2023
Two hot wallets of @HTX_Global have been impacted by this incident, involving 1,240 $ETH, 7.3M $USDT, 1.78M $USDC, and 62.2K $LINK… https://t.co/68psfCztqs pic.twitter.com/EEPbh6Zhl0
The firm also added that all stolen funds are currently stored in four different crypto wallets.
HTX "gradually" resumed deposit and withdrawal on the platform starting Saturday, Nov. 25. It was hacked for the second time since it rebranded from Huobi in September.
Poloniex, the crypto exchange reportedly owned by Sun, was hacked earlier this month and saw around $100 million in crypto assets stolen by malicious actors.
