Kraken restricts accounts amid suspected $133M EU crypto theft

Kraken restricts accounts amid suspected $133M EU crypto theft

Suspected EU Crypto Theft Estimation Rises to $133M: ZachXBT

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Blockchain investigator ZachXBT has raised his estimate of a suspected crypto theft from an unidentified European Union entity to more than $133 million.

On Tuesday, ZachXBT reported another $27 million in withdrawals from centralized exchanges, increasing the suspected losses from $106 million initially reported on Monday.

Update (Nov. 3, 2026, 11:00 UTC): This article has been updated to include comments from Crypto.com.

According to ZachXBT, some withdrawals occurred after his primary disclosure:

“My working theory is a large financial institution in Western Europe was exploited and it’s currently being covered up.”

He further claims that over $30 million was laundered, suggesting that EU law enforcement could have frozen the funds if a proper incident disclosure had taken place.

Bitquery reported that the suspected stolen funds were withdrawn from accounts at Kraken, Crypto.com, and OKX. It also noted a significant conversion of $62.98 million in stablecoins into 27,553 Ether (ETH) within four hours. As of 1:47 UTC Monday, approximately $78.3 million remained in wallets linked to the suspected attacker, while $30.5 million had moved out.

Only $3.74 million in USDC, issued by Circle, was potentially freezeable, according to Bitquery.

Crypto.com confirmed to Cointelegraph that it had taken steps to prevent funds associated with the incident from moving through its platform:

“We are aware of this report and have taken appropriate action to block any funds associated with this third-party incident from moving through Crypto.com. Our platform remains fully operational, and all user funds are secure and accessible.”

OKX acknowledged Cointelegraph’s request for comment and stated that it was looking into the matter. Kraken had not responded at the time of publication.

ZachXBT noted that the attacker was swapping funds into ETH and Monero (XMR) through instant exchanges and cross-chain bridges. He ruled out typical laundering patterns used by North Korea’s Lazarus Group.

Related:

  • North Korea denies role in $6.3B Binance hack, points finger at US

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