On November 24th, Justin Sun issued an apology to the affected users on the X social media platform. In his post, the founder of Tron Blockchain not only apologized but also reassured the community that all assets were safe. He promised to organize a substantial airdrop for Poloniex and HTX users – the two exchange platforms that were recently hacked, resulting in losses of at least $238 million USD.
It’s worth noting that while airdrops are a common phenomenon in the decentralized finance space, the fact that centralized exchanges like Poloniex and HTX are conducting airdrops for the community is unprecedented.
However, Justin Sun’s airdrop promise marks a significant departure from the usual practices. On November 10th, the hot wallet of the Poloniex exchange was unexpectedly hacked, with estimated losses exceeding $114 million USD. Shortly thereafter, Justin Sun confirmed the hack and attempted to persuade the hacker to return the funds in exchange for a reward equivalent to 5% of the stolen amount.
Receiving no response from the hacker, Justin Sun continued to send messages offering a reward of up to 10% of the stolen funds and threatened that if the reconciliation offer was not accepted, the hacker would face legal consequences. However, there has been no response from the hacker, which remains elusive at this point.
Adding to the shock of the Poloniex hack, on November 22nd, Justin Sun announced another security breach in his business portfolio, HECO Chain Bridge. Initial information was shared by PeckShield, who noticed unusual fund transfers from this bridge. At that time, PeckShield had only recorded approximately $19 million USD in assets being withdrawn. However, subsequent statistics from PeckShield revealed that around $86.6 million USD in assets had been withdrawn from the bridge, causing HTX to incur a loss of $30 million USD.
To reassure the community, Justin Sun pledged to ensure that Poloniex would “fully reimburse the affected amount.” He believes that the loss can be compensated using Poloniex’s operational income. In a public proposal, Sun also offered a 5% whitehat reward for the Poloniex attacker.
An hour later, Justin Sun confirmed the hack of HECO Chain Bridge. His initial response was to declare that HTX (which had been previously hacked at the end of September 2023, resulting in losses of $8 million USD) would fully compensate users for any losses, if any. Furthermore, the company temporarily suspended deposits and withdrawals as they conducted an investigation into the incident.