Kraken Clients Hit by Dust Attack Originating from Sanctioned HTX Wallets

Kraken users face temporary account lockouts following a coordinated dusting attack from sanctioned wallets. Arkham Intelligence identified 12,000 transfers sent to Kraken-linked addresses from an HTX wallet this month. The European Union sanctioned Chinese exchange HTX in July for allegedly helping Russians evade sanctions. Kraken stated the transactions aimed to trigger automated compliance locks by spreading sanctioned funds across platforms. Customer account access was quickly restored while the exchange continues holding the sanctioned assets as required. "Recent dust attacks from HTX-owned wallets appear to be an attempt to spread UK- and EU-sanctioned funds to other platforms in order to discredit the broader industry." — Kraken Spokesperson Automated compliance rules make it trivially cheap for bad actors to weaponize sanctioned dust against innocent exchange users.