HECO Bridge & HTX Exchange Hack
Summary
On November 22, 2023, the HECO Chain cross-chain bridge and the HTX exchange (formerly Huobi), both linked to entrepreneur Justin Sun, were simultaneously exploited in what security researchers attributed to a private key compromise. The HECO bridge lost approximately $87 million in various tokens; additional HTX hot wallet losses brought confirmed totals to roughly $113 million. Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic subsequently attributed the attack to North Korea's Lazarus Group, which began laundering funds through Tornado Cash in March 2024.
Connected Entities
1 entities · 10 linked investigations- + 1 more
Timeline(12 events)
2023-09-24
HTX (formerly Huobi) hot wallet exploited for 5,000 ETH (~$8 million). Justin Sun offers 5% white hat bounty.
CoinDesk2023-10-07
September HTX hacker returns 4,997 ETH after receiving 250 ETH (~$410,000) white hat bounty; on-chain message confirms private key leak as root cause.
Bitcoin Insider2023-11-10
Justin Sun-owned Poloniex exchange hacked for approximately $120–126 million via hot wallet compromise; $10M white hat bounty offered.
Decrypt2023-11-22
HECO Chain cross-chain bridge exploited for approximately $87 million via operator private key compromise; HTX hot wallets simultaneously drained for an additional ~$26 million. Total losses approximately $113 million.
CoinDesk2023-11-22
Justin Sun publicly confirms exploits, pledges full compensation for HTX losses, and suspends deposits and withdrawals.
Investing.com2023-11-25
HTX resumes deposit and withdrawal services approximately three days after the hack.
CoinTelegraph2023-12-10
HTX records approximately $258 million in net outflows since resuming services on November 25, reflecting post-hack loss of user confidence.
CoinTelegraph2024-03-13
Lazarus Group (alleged) begins laundering HECO bridge/HTX hack proceeds through Tornado Cash, approximately four months after the theft.
Elliptic2024-03-14
Elliptic attributes the November 2023 HTX and HECO bridge hack to North Korea's Lazarus Group; reports $12 million laundered via Tornado Cash.
CoinDesk2024-03-22
On-chain analysts report total HECO bridge exploit proceeds laundered via Tornado Cash exceed $145 million in ETH over an 8-day period.
CoinTelegraph2024-11-25
HTX announces permanent closure of HECO Chain effective January 15, 2025; users instructed to redeem HRC20 assets before January 10, 2025.
BlockonomiDecision Log
- hash: HKvAVoXwyx1XTxwaEN66YtNsnwgFpWZN2bFYPDTgcu3L
This investigation is cryptographically anchored to the Solana blockchain and source URLs are archived via the Internet Archive.
model: claude-sonnet-4-6
generated: 6/1/2026, 5:48:02 PM
last updated: 6/1/2026, 5:48:07 PM
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