Hacker removed $25 million from the Kronos Research platform

[Lord777]

The Taiwanese trading firm Kronos Research reported an attack in which the attacker withdrew "a small part of the capital".

In the interest of transparency
Around 4 hours ago, we experienced unauthorized access of some of our API keys. We paused all trading while we conduct an investigation. Potential losses are not a significant portion of our equity and we aim to resume trading as soon as possible.
— Kronos Research (@ResearchKronos) November 18, 2023

https://twitter.com/x/status/1726013733888041376

On-chain sleuth ZachXBT, under the company's post on X, reported that potential losses amount to about ~$25 million in Ethereum.

Sorry should be $25M not $20.3M****
— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) November 18, 2023

https://twitter.com/x/status/1726016901770367372

A "blockchain detective" under the pseudonym ZachXBT found out that cybercriminals transferred the stolen ethers to different cryptocurrency addresses. Several transactions were made in the amount of 2780 ETH, 2540 ETH, 2540 ETH, 2636 ETH and 2507.52 ETH.

According to representatives of Kronos, the attack occurred due to unauthorized access to API keys. The company has temporarily suspended trading for the duration of the investigation.

The shutdown of operations led to problems on the WOO X exchange, founded and managed by Kronos.

It looks like people are having trouble on @_WOO_X! We’ll update you if we know more!

ft: @trading_peter, @yohanandz, @cryptodreams11, @panda___yang, pic.twitter.com/1OgZbrDEuO
— Smol News (@NewsInSmol) November 18, 2023

https://twitter.com/x/status/1726006833624613332

Later, the trading platform assured that users funds were safe.

Status update
— First and foremost, all client assets are safe
— TLDR our largest liquidity provider Kronos Research recently experienced a hack that caused them to pause all trading on WOO X
— Since Kronos Research is the primary liquidity provider for spot markets and around… https://t.co/sDR8QHvmZC
— WOO X (@_WOO_X) November 18, 2023

https://twitter.com/x/status/1726016400894898232

"Since Kronos Research is the main provider of liquidity for spot markets and about 40% for perpetual futures, we have temporarily suspended trading through WOO X to protect users positions," the project representatives explained.

A few hours after the announcement, operations with all trading pairs were launched in the same mode.