After more than $200 million was stolen from both HTX and Poloniex last month in a cyberattack, cryptocurrency tycoon Justin Sun declared that money housed on those exchanges were “100% safe.”While withdrawals for some assets are now possible on both exchanges, numerous altcoins are still locked.The two digital assets that might be withdrawn are Bitcoin (BTC) and Tron (TRX). As a result, throughout the past few weeks, both tokens have been trading at a premium on Poloniex, requiring users to accept a 10% haircut in order to liquidate one asset and withdraw another.
Following the theft of $114 million from Poloniex’s hot wallets on November 10, as well as the theft of $97 million from HTX and the blockchain system Heco Chain, the withdrawal freeze was implemented.
“Right now, Poloniex and HTX have recovered from the hack, and we are resuming the tokens one by one,” Justin Sun, an investor in Poloniex and an advisor for HTX, told CoinDesk. “I think for HTX, we have already resumed 95% in terms of USD worth of assets. On Poloniex, we have resumed around 85% in terms of the USD value of the assets.”
“And also be aware, since we have already covered all of the loss of tokens in the platform, on HTX and Poloniex, 100% of assets are 100% safe,” Sun added. “Even though in terms of exchanges itself, we need to basically earn those profits in the future. But for customer assets, it’s 100% safe.”An HTX spokesperson said, “The recent outflow represents a small fraction of our total reserves, and HTX remains in stable, healthy operation.”
HTX and Poloniex have launched an airdrop worth $1 worth of tether (USDT) to allay consumers’ concerns about keeping cash on both exchanges.For each US dollar worth of tokens that a user has on the exchange, they will receive one airdropped token. A snapshot will also be taken.
According to CoinMarketCap, Poloniex has gained $843 million, while HTX has permitted $1.6 billion in trade activity in the last 24 hours.When he established the Tron blockchain in 2017 and raised $70 million through an initial coin offering (ICO), Justin Sun rose to prominence in the cryptocurrency space. Tron now ranks as the second-largest blockchain in terms of volume, with $7.9 billion in total value locked (TVL), and the eleventh-largest cryptocurrency with a market capitalization of $9.1 billion.
SEC filed a lawsuit against Sun earlier this year, claiming that TRX was a security, and Sun’s ascent to popularity with Tron was accompanied by regulatory scrutiny.Based on court documents released earlier this week, Sun’s legal team was given an extension to reply to that lawsuit.