Hackers carry out a powerful cyberattack on cryptocurrency exchanges Binance and Kraken

The hackers who previously tried to deceive Coinbase with fake refund requests have also been involved in attacks on Binance and Kraken exchanges. Binance-kraken-said-to-have-been-targets-of-coinbase-like-hacks" >Bloomberg reports this with reference to its own industry sources.

The essence of the fraudulent scheme was to exploit errors in internal transaction processing. The attackers imitated requests for refunds using third-party payment processors. As a result, exchanges mistakenly credited cryptocurrency, which the hackers later withdrew. According to journalists, the attackers received «significant amounts,» although the exact losses of the companies were not disclosed.

Binance reported that the incident did not result in significant losses, as the assets were promptly frozen. Kraken, for its part, stated that the incident occurred in June 2023, and the exchange is cooperating with law enforcement to identify the attackers. The company also emphasized that the vulnerability was not related to the core infrastructure, but rather to the integration of external services.

Coinbase was the first to publicly mention such an attack, with its representatives announcing losses of up to $ 20 million as a result of manipulations with chargebacks. Now, as it turned out, the scheme was wider in scope and was implemented on several major exchanges simultaneously.

Security experts note that such incidents point to weaknesses not in blockchain protocols but in the integration of traditional financial systems with crypto platforms. Against this backdrop, exchanges are stepping up internal audits and transaction checks to avoid a recurrence of such attacks.