Our weekly roundup of news from East Asia curates the industry’s most important developments.
HTX exchange hacked… again
In the fourth hack affecting the HTX (formerly Huobi Global) ecosystem in just two months, the exchange lost $13.6 million via a hot wallet hack that occurred on November 22.
In its November 23 announcement, the exchange promised to “fully compensate for the losses caused by this attack and 100% guarantee the safety of user funds,” as well as restore services within 24 hours of the attack. The day prior, the HTX Eco Chain (HECO) bridge was exploited for $86.6 million. An investigation is ongoing.
In September, the HTX exchange was hacked for $7.9 million; this was followed by a $100 million hack against the Poloniex exchange, a related entity, in November. Justin Sun, Chinese blockchain personality and de-facto owner of HTX (not to mention the owner of Poloniex, founder of Tron and CEO of BitTorrent etc),stated after the attack that: “HTX Will Fully Compensate for HTX’s hot wallet Losses. Deposits and Withdrawals Temporarily Suspended. All Funds in HTX Are Secure.” Sun previously also madeassurancesthat “all user assets are #SAFU” in the aftermath of the September hack against HTX.
Huobirebranded to HTXduring this year’s Singapore2049 event in September. Although its executives have repeatedly reassured that the exchange is doing well, the exchange ran into a number ofserious incidentsthis year, including analleged employee revolt.
Justin Sun blushes as he shares a stage with Nina on Apr. 11.
Binance pleads guilty, settles criminal charges for $4.3 billion
Crypto exchange Binance has agreed to plead guilty to violating the U.S. Bank Secrecy Act, knowingly failing to register as a money-transmitting business, and willfully violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Consequently, the exchange will pay $4.3 billion in penalties and forfeiture to the U.S. Justice Department.
According to the November…
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