HTX, a crypto exchange operated by Huobi Global, has announced that it has recovered the funds that were stolen by a hacker in late September. The exchange also rewarded the hacker with 250 Ether (ETH) for returning the money.

The hacker had managed to steal 5,000 ETH from one of HTX’s hot wallets on Sept. 25, which was worth about $8 million at the time. HTX quickly contacted the hacker and claimed to know their identity. The exchange offered to pay a 5% bounty and to drop any legal action if the hacker returned 95% of the funds before Oct. 2.

The hacker agreed to the deal and sent back 4,997 ETH on Oct. 7, according to a transaction on Etherscan. HTX then paid the hacker a white hat bonus of 250 ETH, as confirmed by Justin Sun, an investor and adviser of HTX.

Sun thanked everyone in the industry for their help and said that the hacker made the right choice. He also stressed that HTX is committed to providing full security for user assets and protecting them from cyberattacks.

The HTX hack was one of the many incidents that occurred in the third quarter of 2023, which saw a surge in crypto and Web3 hacks. According to a report by Immunefi, a blockchain security platform, there were 76 hacks in Q3 2023, compared to 30 in Q3 2022.

Another major hack that happened in the same week as the HTX hack was the Mixin Network exploit, which resulted in a loss of around $200 million. The attackers breached a third-party cloud service provider and drained Mixin’s multisig wallet. Mixin offered a $20 million bug bounty for the return of the funds, but so far there has been no sign of recovery.