HTX advisor Justin Sun said the cryptocurrency exchange was recently targeted by a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, but that customer funds were not affected and normal operations have resumed.
In a post on his X account on August 31, 2026, Sun said user assets “were not affected in any way” and that services had returned to normal, adding that HTX had completed “the preservation of full evidence,” reported the incident to law enforcement authorities in the relevant jurisdictions, and would pursue criminal liability against those responsible. He said the exchange would prosecute attacks targeting the platform “to the fullest extent.”
The Crypto Times is reporting Sun’s statement and the surrounding context. At the time of writing, details of the incident come principally from Sun himself; the exchange had not published a separate technical breakdown, and independent confirmation of the attack’s scope and duration was limited. This publication has reached out to HTX at 11:00 AM UTC.
What a DDoS attack is
The distinction matters for how the “assets unaffected” claim should be read. A DDoS attack floods a website or service with traffic to overwhelm its capacity and knock it offline, disrupting users’ ability to access the platform. It is an availability attack, not a breach of the exchange’s wallets or private keys; so, unlike a hot-wallet hack, a pure DDoS would not by itself move or steal customer funds.
In that narrow sense, Sun’s claim that user assets were unaffected is consistent with the nature of a DDoS. What has not been independently established is the attack’s severity, how long services were degraded, or whether any other systems were touched.
A familiar pattern for HTX
The episode echoes an earlier one almost exactly. In January 2024, shortly after Huobi rebranded to HTX, the exchange was hit by a DDoS attack that took services offline for roughly 15 minutes; Sun announced the recovery and said user funds were safe.
HTX’s incident history goes further: in September 2023 it lost about $8 million in a hot-wallet exploit, and in November 2023 HTX and the Sun-linked Heco Chain were drained of a combined sum reported at around $100 million, with the related Poloniex exchange hit separately around the same period.
Against a turbulent backdrop
The DDoS disclosure comes during an unusually rocky stretch for HTX. In mid-August, Binance announced it would stop processing transactions involving HTX (Huobi Global SA) and several other crypto-asset service providers from August 23, citing compliance obligations; Sun responded that the measure concerned only UK and EU users, that HTX does not operate in those regions, and that settlement talks with UK and EU regulators were under way.
Around the same time, unsolicited small USDT transfers linked to HTX wallets triggered account freezes at other exchanges, Kraken froze about $4.2 million, and Sun dismissed the related “address poisoning” reports as fabricated. HTX has been treated as a sanctioned counterparty in the UK and EU, holds a MiCA license via Malta, and has been on the UK FCA’s warning list since 2023.
Who Justin Sun is
Sun’s role at HTX is itself a recurring point of contention. He publicly describes himself as an “advisor” to the exchange, but analysts and reporting have long identified him as its effective controller following a 2022 acquisition of Huobi’s controlling stake, a framing critics revive whenever he distances himself from HTX’s troubles.
The TRON founder is also one of crypto’s most prominent and controversial figures: the US SEC charged him in March 2023 with selling unregistered securities and market manipulation (a case that later moved toward a pause under new SEC leadership), he invested $75 million in President Trump’s World Liberty Financial venture in 2025, and he serves as Grenada’s ambassador to the World Trade Organization, the source of his “H.E.” (His Excellency) honorific.
The takeaway
On the specific claim, the reassurance is reasonable for a DDoS: this class of attack disrupts access rather than compromising funds, and HTX says services are back to normal. But with the incident so far documented mainly by Sun, and against a backdrop of regulatory friction and disputed events at the exchange in recent weeks, users are best served by watching for an official HTX post-incident report and independent verification rather than treating the matter as fully settled. The Crypto Times will update this story as more details emerge, and makes no market or price forecast.
Also read: Unsolicited HTX Transfers Trigger Account Freezes on Binance and Other Crypto Exchanges
