Kraken Discloses Extortion Over Unauthorized Access to 2,000 Accounts

Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken disclosed on Monday an extortion attempt by a criminal group threatening to release videos of unauthorized insider access to client support systems, affecting approximately 2,000 accounts but posing no risk to customer funds or core infrastructure.

The incidents, detailed in a statement from Chief Security and Information Officer Nick Percoco, involved two separate cases of support team members accessing internal systems without authorization. The first occurred in February 2025, when Kraken received a tip about a video circulating on a criminal forum showing such activity. Company officials quickly identified the individual, revoked their access, conducted an internal investigation, strengthened security controls, and notified the affected clients. A second incident followed a similar pattern more recently, prompting another tip and video. Kraken again identified the person involved, terminated their access, investigated the matter, and informed a small number of impacted users.

Across both events, the unauthorized access was limited to support-level client data, potentially viewing information from about 2,000 accounts, which represents just 0.02...