Crypto exchange HTX see outflows top $258M following exploit

December 11, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Circle denies claims of illicit financing and ties to Justin Sun

November 30, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Circle

According to an open letter published on Circle’s blog, the company has not provided services to Justin Sun since February.

USDC stablecoin issuer Circle has denied claims of illicit financing and ties to Tron founder Justin Sun, according to an open letter accessed from Circle’s blog on Nov.

*Circle open letter to U.S. Source: Circle.*

The post was published on Nov.

In the letter, Disparte claimed that Circle has “recently became aware” of “false” claims being made about it by the “so-called Campaign for Accountability (“CfA”).

Disparte dismissed the allegation that Circle facilitated “major flows of funds to Hamas or Hezbollah,” claiming instead that these accusations are based on uncorroborated, unverified posts to social media.

Disparte also claimed that Circle stopped providing services to Justin Sun in February, 2023, stating:

“Neither Mr. Sun and his affiliated companies in February 2023.”

The open letter from Circle appears to have been sent in response to a Nov. CfA’s letter claimed that Circle has extensive ties to Justin Sun’s Tron Foundation and major Wall Street investors and that Sun’s cross-chain protocol, SunSwap, is often used for money laundering.

Claims that crypto is being used to finance terrorism have been commonplace since the Israeli-Hamas war broke out on Oct. The media outlet later corrected its story, stating instead that $12 million in crypto “may have been” sent to these organizations.

Crypto exchange HTX reinstates Bitcoin services after $30M hack

November 27, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Bitcoin

Justin Sun said he expects functionality for other cryptocurrencies to gradually be reinstated with full services returning by next week.

Bitcoin (BTC) deposits and withdrawals have returned to the Justin Sun-linked crypto exchange HTX, formerly Huobi, after it suffered a $30 million exploit on Nov. 22.

In a Nov. 26 blog post, HTX said deposit and withdrawal functionality is back for multiple currencies, including BTC, Ether (ETH), Tron (TRX) and Tether (USDT).

In a later post on X (Twitter), Justin Sun said HTX aims to gradually bring back functionality to the remaining cryptocurrencies, which he expects to be done “by next week.”

The majority of the work has been accomplished, and we aim to restore the remaining currencies gradually in the next few days, with all work expected to be completed by next week.
— H.E. Justin Sun 孙宇晨 (@justinsuntron) November 26, 2023

HTX’s exchange hot wallets were drained of $30 million and was one of the four hacks in half as many months on Sun-linked or controlled crypto platforms.

The HTX Eco (HECO) Chain bridge — consisting of HTX, Tron and BitTorrent, all linked to or controlled by Sun — was attacked for $86.6 million on the same day as HTX.

The Sun-owned crypto exchange Poloniex also suffered a $100 million attack on Nov. 10, which blockchain security firm CertiK said was likely due to a private key compromise.

On Sept. 24, shortly after Huobi was rebranded to HTX, an attacker stole nearly $8 million in crypto from the exchange’s hot wallet.

Magazine: Asia Express: HTX hacked again for $30M, 100K Koreans test CBDC, Binance 2.0

Over $100,000,000 in Ethereum, Shiba Inu, Chainlink and Other Crypto Assets Drained From Justin Sun-Linked Firms

November 25, 2023 The Daily Hodl

HTX to restore services ‘within 24 hours’ after $13.6M hack

November 23, 2023 Coin Telegraph

<div>HTX to restore services 'within 24 hours' after .6M hack</div>

Coin Telegraph

"Huobi HTX has now properly handled this attack," the crypto exchange stated.

Crypto exchange HTX, formerly Huobi Global, will resume deposits and withdrawals within 24 hours after suffering a $13.6 million exploit on Nov. 22.

According to its official announcement, the exchange promised to "fully compensate for the losses caused by this attack and 100% guarantee the safety of user funds." In addition, developers wrote, "the amount of funds lost by Huobi HTX this time accounts for a very small amount of the total funds of the platform," noting that the "normal operations" of HTX were not affected by the incident.

The day prior, Huobi suffered a $13.6 million hack to its exchange hot wallets as part of an orchestrated $86.6 million attack against the HTX Eco (HECO) Chain bridge, consisting of HTX, Tron (TRX), and BitTorrent (BTT). All three entities are linked or de-facto controlled by Chinese blockchain entrepreneur Justin Sun.

Like previous incidents, HTX stated that "protecting user assets and information security is our highest responsibility, and we will take all necessary measures to prevent such incidents from happening again." Over the past two months, HTX and Justin Sun-linked entities have been hacked four times. The largest was the $100 million Poloniex exploit on Nov. 10 caused by an apparent private key compromise.

Sun has since stated, "We are investigating the specific reasons for the hacker attack. Once we complete the investigation and identify the cause, we will resume services." A $10 million white hat bounty for the return of stolen funds in the $100 million Poloniex exploit remains open at the time of publication.

Justin Sun-related crypto platforms hacked 4 times in 2 months

November 23, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

Justin Sun’s cryptocurrency exchange HTX has been hacked twice since rebranding from Huobi in September 2023, raising questions from the crypto community.

Tron founder Justin Sun's crypto businesses have come under repeated attack from hackers over the past two months, with at least four hacks of the largest exploits targeting platforms related to the crypto entrepreneur.

Sun’s HTX crypto exchange has been hacked at least twice since the platform rebranded from Huobi on Sept. 13, 2023. The first HTX hack occurred just a few days after the rebranding, with an unknown attacker stealing nearly $8 million in crypto on Sept. 24, 2023.

In its second hack, HTX reportedly lost $13.6 million due to a hot wallet breach in an incident that affected the wider HTX, Tron and BitTorrent ecosystem. Previously known as Huobi, HTX was acquired by Sun in October 2022.

The hackers have also focused on other Sun-related cryptocurrency platforms, including Sun-owned cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex and Huobi’s HTX Eco Chain (HECO) bridge.

Poloniex suffered a significant security breach on Nov. 10, when attackers stole at least $100 million in cryptocurrency from the exchange. Sun, who acquired the business in 2019, reported on X (formerly Twitter) that Poloniex disabled the wallet. According to the blockchain security firm CertiK, the incident was likely a “private key compromise.”

Huobi’s HECO chain bridge, a tool designed for moving digital assets between HECO and other networks like Ethereum, also suffered a massive breach. On Nov. 22, unknown hackers compromised HECO, sending at least $86.6 million to suspicious addresses.

The platforms lost a combined sum of around $208 million in all four hacks over the past two months. Despite Tron founder Sun’s promise to compensate losses for all four incidents, some crypto enthusiasts have urged the community to stay away from Poloniex and HTX, with several questioning who might be involved in the hacks.

One crypto observer argued that Sun is “clearly in big trouble,” noting that Poloniex has been closed for five days and HTX offers 100% interest on cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.

*HTX’s interest offering for Bitcoin. Source: HTX Earn*

HTX did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comment.

The ongoing speculation comes months after the United States Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil lawsuit against Tron Founder Sun, charging him and his companies like Tron and BitTorrent for fraud and other securities law violations in March 2023.

A U.S. court subsequently issued a summons to Sun’s Singapore address concerning the case in April 2023. In August, the SEC said that its litigation against Sun was ongoing.

Magazine: How to protect your crypto in a volatile market — Bitcoin OGs and experts weigh in

Poloniex crypto exchange resumes withdrawals after $100M hack

November 15, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Poloniex crypto exchange resumes withdrawals after 0M hack

Coin Telegraph

Hacked cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex said it has mostly completed restoration efforts and is preparing to resume operations after suffering the major hack on Nov. 10.

Justin Sun’s cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex is preparing to resume operations after suffering a major hack in mid-November, according to an official company announcement posted on Nov. 15

In the statement, the company said that the platform has “mostly completed” the restoration efforts after the $100 million hack.

“The platform is now operating smoothly,” Poloniex said in its most recent update on the resumption of deposit and withdrawal services. The exchange has enlisted a “top-tier security auditing firm” to enhance the security of funds on Poloniex and is preparing to resume withdrawals soon, the firm said, adding:

“Currently, they are in the final stages of the security audit and verification processes for Poloniex. Upon completion of the audit, we will promptly resume deposit and withdrawal services on our platform.”

The firm added that the “evaluation process” is still ongoing and is estimated to take several more days.

Poloniex did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comment.

Poloniex suffered a major security breach on Nov. 10, with attackers stealing at least $100 million in cryptocurrency from the exchange. The Poloniex team subsequently disabled the wallet after discovering the suspicious outflows. According to the blockchain security firm CertiK, the incident was likely a “private key compromise.”

Poloniex owner Sun — who acquired the exchange in 2019 — took to X (formerly Twitter) soon after Poloniex disabled the wallet, reporting that the team was already investigating the hacking incident. Sun promised to fully reimburse the users affected by the breach, claiming that Poloniex “maintains a healthy financial position” and is looking for collaborations with other exchanges to recover the lost funds.

Earlier this year, Poloniex agreed to pay a $7.6 million settlement requested by the United States Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control, related to more than 65,000 apparent violations of multiple sanctions programs.

Magazine: How to protect your crypto in a volatile market — Bitcoin OGs and experts weigh in

Ethics watchdog rats out Circle for links to Tron in letter to Sens. Warren, Brown

November 11, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Circle

The Campaign for Accountability wanted to let the anti-crypto senators know that the threat of terrorist financing with crypto was worse than they thought.

Nonprofit ethics group Campaign for Accountability (CfA) sent a letter to U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Sherrod Brown on Nov. 9 to present them with information on the alleged use of cryptocurrency in money laundering. The letter discussed the Tron blockchain and stablecoin issuer Circle in particular.

In the letter signed by CfA executive director Michelle Kuppersmith, it is alleged that USD Coin (USDC) issuer Circle has extensive ties to both Justin Sun’s Tron Foundation (TRX) and major Wall Street investors such as Goldman Sachs, Bank of New York Mellon and Blackrock.

Kuppersmith called Circle’s connections to Wall Street “surprising" in light of its supposed lack of regulation and Tron's alleged connections with terrorism financing.

Tron is under investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for unregistered securities sales and has been linked to the alleged financing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and possibly Hamas and Hezbollah, the letter outlined. Meanwhile, it claimed that $400 million worth of USDC is in the Tron ecosystem. The letter said:

“Recently published studies and reports of law enforcement operations indicate a prominent US- based cryptocurrency company backed by major Wall Street investment houses [Circle] may be directly or indirectly compromised by its integration with an Asia-based network of trading platforms and cryptocurrencies.”

That network, Tron, “has been named in multiple international law enforcement actions involving billions of dollars in transactions by alleged organized crime groups and sanctioned entities.”

These concerns go beyond the issues raised in the letter the senators, along with over 100 other legislators, sent to the National Security Advisor and Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Kuppersmith added. The letter referred to was sent by the bipartisan group of lawmakers on Oct. 17. Crypto advocacy groups took issue with several of the claims made in that letter.

The CfA letter to Sens. Brown and Warren. Source: CfA

Furthermore, the letter questions Circle's apparent lack of regulation, and its operation of an “unregulated cross chain protocol.”

"While Goldman, BNY and Blackrock are all registered with and regulated by multiple federal and state banking and securities authorities, Circle has either avoided or failed to subject itself to primary prudential regulation since its founding a decade ago, a concern Campaign for Accountability flagged to the SEC in May of 2022," the letter outlines.

On Nov. 10, the CfA also submitted a comment on the Department of Treasury Financial Crimes Enforcement Network’s October proposal to designate crypto mixers as money-laundering hubs.

The proposal “is worthwhile but may soon be obsolete unless the scope of the regulation is broadened to include newer methods criminal groups have adopted using virtual currencies,” the organization said.

Despite being a US company, Circle has either avoided or failed to subject itself to primary or prudential regulation since its founding a decade ago, a concern Campaign for Accountability flagged to the SEC in May of 2022. https://t.co/4s8w98JL8S
— Campaign for Accountability (@Accountable_Org) November 9, 2023

In the comment, the CfA discusses cross-chain protocols and Sun’s SunSwap decentralized exchange protocol, which blockchain forensics firm Elliptic has identified as “the medium where terrorist organizations obtain the necessary [digital currency].”

The organization adds that “Sun is reported to have direct ties to the Communist Party of China,” citing a report that Sun participated in a research project at China’s Central Party School.

Magazine: Justin Sun’s SUI-farming sins, PEPE’s wild run, 3AC’s oyster philosophy: Asia Express