Kronos Research halts trading amid $25M API key hack investigation
A hacker made off with $25 million from quantitative trading firm Kronos Research after entering compromised API keys.
In the year On November 19, Kronos Research disclosed that an unauthorized party had accessed some of its API keys. Subsequently, the company stopped its marketing services on the platform. However, no losses were reported at the time.
4 hours ago In the interest of transparency, we experienced unauthorized access to some of our API keys. We have suspended all trading while we investigate. Potential losses are not a significant part of our equity and we aim to resume business as soon as possible.
— Kronos Research (@ResearchKronos) November 18, 2023
Blockchain researcher ZackXBT tracked the announcement and found that nearly $25 million was transferred to six unique crypto wallet addresses in total. According to the investigation, the six transactions – 2,780 Ether (ETH), 2,540 ETH, 2,540 ETH, 2,636 ETH, 4.93 ETH and 2,507.52 ETH respectively – were made from Kronos Research accounts at different addresses.
Kronos Research is suspending its trading services indefinitely until internal investigations find the culprit who stole more than 12,800 ETH, but the firm expects a positive outcome.
“Potential losses are not a significant part of our equity and we aim to resume business as soon as possible.”
Kronos Research did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph's request for comment.
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The growing number of crypto hacks warrants investors to do extensive research on the projects they intend to invest in.
Blockchain security firm CertiK recently described Q3 2023 as the most “harmful” quarter for crypto.
Private key exploits, withdrawal scams, and phishing were the most common techniques for hacking the crypto ecosystem. More than $700 million in digital assets were destroyed by various security threats in Q3 2023, up from $320 million in the first quarter and $313 million in the second quarter.
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