Kraken User Loses $18M in Crypto Heist via Social Engineering

A significant crypto heist has been reported on the Kraken exchange, with an attacker making off with $18.2 million in a sophisticated social engineering scheme.

The incident, which was first flagged by blockchain investigator ZachXBT, involved the attacker using tactics commonly tied to phishing or impersonation schemes to gain access to user funds.

Once inside, the attacker quickly bridged the stolen assets from Ethereum to Bitcoin via Thorchain, a decentralized protocol that allows for seamless asset transfers between blockchains without centralized intermediaries.

The on-chain data indicates that roughly $1.8 million in ether was part of the early laundering flow tied to the incident, with analysts identifying multiple wallet addresses linked to the theft.