Hacker Bobol Kronos Research, Steals IDR 386.1 Billion Ether

Kronos Research, hacked by hackers. (photo: x @ResearchKronos)

JAKARTA - On November 19, a hacker managed to get away USD 25 million (IDR 386.1 billion) from Kronos Research's quantitative trading company after accessing a compromised API key.

Kronos Research announced that unauthorized entities accessed several of its API keys. As a follow-up, the company suspended trading services on its platform. However, no losses were reported at the time.

Blockchain investigator ZachXBT conducted a search of the announcement and found about 25 million US dollars in total had been channeled to six different crypto wallet addresses. According to the results of the investigation, the six transactions were worth 2,780 Ether (ETH), 2,540 ETH, 2,540 ETH, 2,636 ETH, 4,93 ETH, and 2,507.52 ETH, respectively made from Kronos Research accounts to various addresses owned by hackers.

Although Kronos Research suspended trade services indefinitely until internal investigations tracked down the perpetrators who stole more than 12,800 ETH, the company expects positive results:

"The potential loss is not a significant part of our equity, and we aim to continue trading as quickly as possible," Kronos said.

The increasing number of crypto hacks demands that investors conduct comprehensive research on the projects they intend to invest in.

CertiK's blockchain security firm recently revealed that the Q3 2023 quarter was the most "harmful" quarter to crypto.

Personal key exploits, out-of-flight fraud and oracle manipulation are the most common techniques used to hack the crypto ecosystem. More than $700 million in digital assets were lost due to various security incidents in Q3 2023, surpassing a first-quarter loss of $320 million and a second-quarter loss of $313 million.