French bank Fortuneo suspected of cross-border transfer attack; $133 million flowed to cryptocurrency exchanges

TechFlow report: Nov. 4, according to an exclusive disclosure by French journalist Grégory Raymond, Fortuneo, an online bank under France's Crédit Mutuel Arkéa group, is suspected of falling victim to large-scale transfer fraud. Attackers reportedly initiated cross-border transfers using forged beneficiary information, opened accounts at cryptocurrency exchanges such as Kraken with forged identities, received funds after passing KYC review, then converted fiat currency into stablecoins and transferred them out.

On-chain tracking shows that between Nov. 1 and Nov. 2, approximately $63 million in stablecoins was swapped into 27,553 ETH via UniswapX, then moved through cross-chain bridges and instant swap services; some funds were converted into privacy coin Monero (XMR). ZachXBT previously estimated the involved amount exceeded $133 million, but the journalist, citing sources, said that if fund flows not routed through the blockchain and OTC trades are included, actual losses may be higher.

The report also noted that Kraken reportedly began freezing related funds overnight from Monday to Tuesday, and the criminal network subsequently shifted to other platforms. Regarding the method, sources proposed two possibilities: the bank's payment system was breached, or insiders were targeted by fraudsters impersonating executives. Currently, the attackers' identities, actual loss amount, fund ownership, and whether the bank still has security risks have not been confirmed, and Crédit Mutuel Arkéa has not publicly responded.

Earlier reports said on-chain detective ZachXBT updated his investigation to claim that the EU financial institution that lost more than $133 million in an attack is reportedly French bank Crédit Mutuel Arkéa, whose assets reach $235 billion.

Source: TechFlow