French bank Credit Mutuel Arkea confirms cyberattack following reported theft

French lender Credit Mutuel Arkea confirmed on Wednesday that it suffered a cyberattack that permitted fraudulent transfers, according to reports from Bitcoin Magazine, Decrypt, and CyberSecurityNews. The confirmation follows statements from onchain investigator ZachXBT, who identified the bank as the victim of a cryptocurrency theft exceeding 133 million dollars, as reported by CoinDesk, The Block, and Cointelegraph. [1][2][3][4][5][6][8][10]

Bitcoin Magazine reported that the security compromise occurred through a third-party service provider, allowing attackers to initiate unauthorized transfers directly from the bank's own account. Decrypt reported that the bank did not explicitly mention cryptocurrency in its statement and added that it is still evaluating the total financial impact of the incident. [1][4]

Credit Mutuel Arkea stated that the incident is under control, normal operations are resuming, and customer assets were not affected by the breach, according to Bitcoin Magazine and Decrypt. Decrypt added that the bank implemented enhanced security measures and that the intrusion only caused delays in executing standard transactions. [1][4]

Following the transfer of stolen funds, cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com confirmed that it blocked accounts and assets associated with the theft, according to CoinDesk. Onchain sleuth ZachXBT stated with high confidence that the exploit was not carried out by the North Korean state-sponsored Lazarus Group, as reported by The Block. [2][3]

Crédit Mutuel is a French cooperative banking group and ranks among the top five banks in France, serving more than 30 million retail and institutional clients. [12]