In brief – Onchain investigator ZachXBT has named French banking group Crédit Mutuel Arkéa as the alleged victim of a crypto theft of more than $133 million. – ZachXBT said the attack took place over multiple days, and that he suspects the total is higher once over-the-counter…
tivity is counted. – The bank has not publicly confirmed any theft. Onchain investigator ZachXBT has named French banking group Crédit Mutuel Arkéa as the alleged victim of a crypto theft of more than $133 million. “Disclosing the EU financial institution exploited for $133M+ is allegedly Credit Mutuel Arkea, a French bank with $235B in assets,” ZachXBT wrote on his Telegram channel on Tuesday. “The attack on the bank occurred for multiple days
I suspect the amount stolen is larger when accounting for OTC activity.” Crédit Mutuel Arkéa has not publicly confirmed any theft. Decrypt has reached out to the bank for comment. The mutual banking group has been preparing to move into crypto.
In May, French financial newspaper L’Agefi reported that it had applied for a license under MiCA, the EU’s crypto rulebook, to offer crypto services to its retail customers and to provide them as a white-label service through its Arkéa Banking Services division. ZachXBT first flagged the suspected theft on Monday, saying an unnamed entity in the European Union may have lost more than $106 million from accounts at several crypto exchanges on November 1. The funds were withdrawn as USDC and USDT, he said in his original post, and the attacker then swapped USDC for ETH, moved funds through instant exchanges, converted some into privacy coin and bridged across multiple chains.