Kraken User Allegedly Drained in Suspected Social Engineering Heist

Blockchain investigator ZachXBT reported that an unknown Kraken user lost $18.2 million in a suspected social engineering scam, with stolen funds already moving across chains. The threat actor began bridging 878 ETH, worth roughly $1.8 million, from Ethereum (ETH) to Bitcoin (BTC) through THORChain using a SafePal wallet. ZachXBT shared the details on his Telegram channel. Another Social Engineering Victim Funneled Through THORChain The theft address tied to the incident is 0xC55149BbD560435a9FbEabFdcF9711cf928acA21 on Ethereum, with a corresponding BTC address of 1D8f8956EEFLXN28AHfioEx4ywVbxCz8KN. On-chain data from the THOR InfoBot confirmed the streaming swap was initiated roughly 45 minutes before the alert went public, adding credence to ZachXBT’s claim. 🌊 New streaming swap[ca21]: 878.0 ETH ($1.8M) → ⚡ → BTCTrack Tx: https://t.co/nUrnTUA3eo.Runescan: https://t.co/E6QqxPewrJ pic.twitter.com/IJbVJRKWwX— THOR InfoBot (@THOR_InfoBot) March 31, 2026 THORChain, a decentralized cross-chain liquidity protocol, does not require KYC verification. That feature has made it a repeated tool for laundering stolen funds. In January 2026, an attacker used the same protocol to move portions of $282 million in stolen BTC and Litecoin (LTC) after tricking a hardware wallet user into revealing their seed phrase. On January 10, 2026 at around 11 pm UTC a victim lost $282M+ worth of LTC & BTC due to a hardware wallet social engineering scam.The attacker began converting the stolen LTC & BTC to Monero via multiple instant exchanges causing the XMR price to sharply increase.BTC was also…— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) January 16, 2026 In that case, 818 BTC worth $78 million was swapped into ETH, XRP, and LTC through THORChain. The blockchain investigator also tracked a $330 million theft in 2025 and a $91 million loss in August of that year, both involving social engineering and cross-chain fund movement. Nine hours ago a suspicious transfer was made from a potential victim for 3520 BTC ($33...