Blockchain investigator ZachXBT has named Crédit Mutuel Arkéa as the alleged EU financial institution behind a crypto theft of more than $133 million. Funds across 332 wallets were subsequently tracked, and Tether had frozen approximately $1.14 million in USDT by November 2.
ZachXBT identified French bank Crédit Mutuel Arkéa as the alleged victim of a crypto theft of more than $133 million. In his latest update, the investigator said the bank, which reportedly holds over $235 billion in assets, was targeted over multiple days.
Estimate grows from $106 million
The disclosure follows ZachXBT's earlier look into suspicious withdrawals from multiple centralized exchange accounts, which was initially estimated at around $106 million. The funds were reportedly withdrawn in USDC and USDT, then moved through ETH swaps, instant exchanges, privacy-focused cryptocurrency Monero (XMR), and cross-chain bridges.
However, ZachXBT also suspects the actual amount could be higher once over-the-counter (OTC) activity is counted. The attacker's identity remains unknown, and the investigator has said the laundering indicators point away from the North Korea-linked Lazarus Group.
Bitquery traces the withdrawals
Meanwhile, Bitquery's analysis traced $108.8 million in USDC withdrawals from Kraken, Crypto.com and OKX to 15 wallets over a 21-hour period on November 1 and 2. Eleven of these addresses had previously received funds from the same exchanges, which suggested they may have been trusted withdrawal addresses associated with the affected accounts.
Funds across 332 wallets were subsequently tracked, and Bitquery found that much of the USDC had been converted into ETH. As of 13:27 UTC on November 3, approximately $61 million remained on Ethereum in addresses linked to the illicit actor. The analysis also identified $28 million transferred to four addresses missing from the initial list of 11.
Few funds frozen so far
On the recovery front, Tether had frozen approximately $1.14 million in USDT by November 2. Circle had not frozen any of the remaining $2.53 million in USDC. Separately, Bitquery flagged a transfer of 396 ETH to a Kraken deposit address on November 3.
Source: CryptoPotato
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