Kraken limits accounts in suspected $133M EU crypto theft probe

Kraken has limited accounts connected to a suspected crypto theft from an unnamed European entity that blockchain investigator ZachXBT now pegs at $133 million, up from the $106 million figure he first cited Monday, according to Cointelegraph. The revised total follows ZachXBT's identification of another $27 million in withdrawals routed through centralized exchanges, Cointelegraph reported.

Kraken told the outlet its systems were not breached and that no customer accounts were taken over. Crypto.com said it acted to stop related funds from passing through its platform, and OKX said it was looking into the matter. Blockchain analytics firm Bitquery found that close to $62.98 million in stablecoins had been swapped into 27,553 Ether in about four hours, Cointelegraph reported.

By 13:47 UTC Monday, Bitquery data cited by the outlet showed roughly $78.3 million still sitting in wallets tied to the suspected attacker, with $30.5 million already moved elsewhere. Of what remained, just $3.74 million sat in USDC that Circle could still act on, whereas Tether had moved earlier to freeze $1.1 million in USDT. ZachXBT said he believes a major Western European financial institution was targeted and alleged that delayed disclosure of the incident let more than $30 million get laundered, with funds reportedly being converted into Ether and Monero via instant-swap services and cross-chain bridges, per Cointelegraph.

The identity of the affected institution, the original cause of the breach, and whether total losses exceed $133 million have not been confirmed.