HECO Chain Bridge Hacked, $86.6 Million in Digital Assets Drained

PeckShield has reported that over $86.6 million in digital assets have been transferred from the HECO Chain Bridge to suspicious addresses, leading to suspicions of a compromise and ongoing exploit. In response, Tron founder Justin Sun’s HTX has announced full compensation for any losses incurred in the hack and temporarily suspended deposits and withdrawals while investigating the incident. PeckShield initially flagged a transaction involving 10,145 Ether worth around $19 million, followed by transfers of other assets such as USD Coin, Chainlink, and Shiba INU. The HECO Chain, launched in December 2020, is a cross-chain ecosystem with lower gas fees resulting from a merger between Tron and BitTorrent’s bridge ecosystem. This is the second recent exploit involving a project related to Sun, with Poloniex, acquired by Sun in 2018, suffering a $100 million hack in November. Analysts suggest that this incident may have resulted from compromised private keys.