Correction: Huobi wasn’t hacked in 2015, but the 2015 Bitstamp hacker did withdraw 12,000 BTC from Huobi

I posted yesterday:

SpeedyflyChris on Reddit /r/CryptoCurrency details how Tether was hacked by the same person who hacked Bitstamp and Huobi in 2015

Huobi were most upset by this, and by others who read SpeedyflyChris’s post as Huobi having been hacked:

Huobi has been never hacked in our history. Users’ assets are always secured and Users’ data is always protected. We do not know why both Tether and Bitstamp hacks link to us in the article. We will reserve the right to pursue the legal action if serious consequence is caused.

SpeedyflyChris’s original post says:

This wallet from the Tether and Bitstamp hacks seems to be owned by the same person who took 12000BTC out of Huobi in late 2015, interesting…

https://www.walletexplorer.com/wallet/002d28cac852fc7d

I asked about this on the original thread, and SpeedyflyChris helpfully answered:

https://www.walletexplorer.com/wallet/03027bd0c2d8cbf9

This is what I was basing that on, 12000BTC or so withdrawn from Huobi in a day, if you follow the first set of transactions after they leave that wallet they’re immediately combined with some of the stolen bitstamp funds see here before being passed through several more wallets and onto BTC-e in batches of 1000 or so.

I never specifically said that Huobi was hacked, merely that the attacker took funds from there. The circumstances of why the attacker withdrew 12000btc or so from their exchange cannot be established from chain analysis alone.

 

I’m not sure what to make of the 12000BTC withdrawal if it’s not actually a hack. I guess the three possibilities are:

1- They were hacked but won’t admit it.

2- The bitstamp hacker withdrew 12000 or so BTC from their Huobi account that day.

3- Someone related to the bitstamp hacker (involved in laundering the coins through BTC-e) withdrew 12000 or so BTC from their Huobi account that day.

There may be other possibilities that I’m not thinking of. It’s certainly fairly suspect activity.

He also added to the original post:

Edit: Huobi are saying this is not a hack, so who knows why 12000 or so bitcoin was withdrawn from their exchange and combined with the coins from bitstamp see here before being passed through several more wallets and onto BTC-e in batches of 1000 or so.

Huobi did tweet about a DDOS attack in early 2015, though not a hack:

Huobi has been experiencing a severe DDOS attack but no security breach – deposits and withdrawals are available as normal.

My apologies to Huobi and SpeedyflyChris for misinterpreting SpeedyflyChris’s original post.



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