Huobi Global's crypto exchange HTX confirmed the return of funds stolen by a hacker in late September and offered a reward of 250 Ether (ETH) after resolving the issue.

On September 25, 5,000 ETH were removed from HTX's hot wallets, worth approximately $8 million at the time. Shortly after the attack occurred, the company contacted the hacker and claimed to know his identity.

HTX offered to pay a 5% reward worth approximately $400,000 and not take any legal action if they returned 95% of the funds by October 2.

Huobi Global investor and HTX advisor Justin Sun noted in an X post on October 7: "Hacker made the right choice. We want to thank everyone in the industry for their help!"

"Strengthening blockchain security and protecting user assets is never an easy task, and we work tirelessly! Ensuring complete security for user assets is always our goal! We are grateful for the continued support of our users and community!" said.

Hackers were common in the third quarter of 2023. According to a recently published report from blockchain security platform Immunefi, there were 76 attacks on crypto and Web3 projects/companies in Q3 2023, up 30 from Q3 2022.

In the same week of the HTX attack, decentralized cross-chain protocol Mixin Network was exploited for approximately $200 million after attackers breached a third-party cloud service provider.

Mixin Network has offered a $20 million bug bounty if they return the funds, but the likelihood of the funds being recovered seems low.

On October 6, Anne Neuberger, the deputy national security adviser for cyber and new technologies, suggested to Bloomberg that North Korean hackers might be responsible for exploiting Mixin.

"The diplomatic skill seems to be the kind of diplomatic skill we've seen from North Korea before," he said.