Justin Sun-led HECO Chain Hacked to the Tune of $86 Million

• HECO, created by Justin Sun, is a gateway that enables the exchange of tokens and coins.
• The funds were sent to decentralized exchanges where they were traded for other tokens.

There has been a questionable transfer of $86 million from one of the HECO accounts to an unknown address. Cyvers Alerts, an on-chain security tool driven by AI, has announced that it has uncovered the mysterious transaction.

HECO, created by Justin Sun, is a gateway that enables the exchange of tokens and coins between the Ethereum blockchain and the Heco Chain. On December 21, 2020, HTX Eco Chain (HECO) became live with the intention of providing a cross-chain experience with cheaper gas rates. In 2022, Sun combined the Tron network with the BitTorrent bridge ecosystem into HECO.

Peckshield Alert also tracked a transaction of 10,145 ETH. According to Peckshield, an operator executed the transaction, which raises the possibility that the operator’s address was hacked.

Multiple Attacks

According to Igor Igamberdiev, head of research at Wintermute, and PeckShield, the initial assessment is that $86.6 million was stolen from the Heco bridge. Instantaneously, the money was sent to decentralized exchanges where they were traded for other tokens.

Igamberdiev concludes that there was a second hack into the cryptocurrency exchange HTX based on suspicious $23.4 million in transfers. He said these deals happened soon after the Heco bridge hack and followed the same patterns. To likely further secure its cryptocurrency, HTX has begun transferring cash from a separate hot wallet to a recovery wallet.

HECO Chain is the second Sun-related project to be hacked in recent times. Sun’s 2018 exchange acquisition Poloniex was hacked to the tune of $100 million on November 10th. Private keys may have been hacked, according to security experts. Moreover, HECO’s creator, Justin Sun, also acknowledged the recent hack on Twitter. 

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