The key facts
- Around €118 million was stolen from the French banking group Crédit Mutuel Arkéa; the bank confirmed fraudulent transactions
- Funds were withdrawn through numerous accounts on cryptocurrency exchanges; some transactions were temporarily suspended
- On November 4 the bank said the incident had been contained and client assets were not affected
Major theft via cryptocurrency exchanges
The French banking group Crédit Mutuel Arkéa suffered a cyberattack in which, according to Le Télégramme, attackers stole around €118 million. The bank officially confirmed that fraudulent transactions had taken place. The theft was first made public by the independent cryptocurrency transaction researcher ZachXBT: according to his data, the stolen money was moved through numerous accounts on cryptocurrency exchanges.
The bank's response
After the attack was detected, specialists temporarily suspended some transactions to prevent further withdrawal of funds. In a statement on November 4, the group said the incident had been contained and operations were gradually resuming; according to the bank, client assets were not affected. Thus, what remains confirmed is the fact of the fraudulent transactions themselves and their scale as reported by Le Télégramme, whereas the absence of losses for clients is the bank's own claim, not an independent verification.
Context
The Life.ru article also recalls another recent incident: according to a preliminary report from the cryptocurrency exchange Binance, attackers spent about six months preparing an attack on its systems, using fake job interviews and malicious software to gain entry. This is a separate story, unrelated to the attack on Crédit Mutuel Arkéa; no connection between the two incidents was claimed in the publications.
