Kraken’s Chief Safety Officer Nick Percoco has revealed that the crypto change is being extorted by criminals who’re threatening to leak movies of consumer information.
He claims that in 2025, the change found one in every of its help employees had leaked consumer information after someone tipped the agency off about footage circulating on prison boards.
Kraken Safety Replace
We’re presently being extorted by a prison group threatening to launch movies of our inner techniques with consumer information proven if we don’t adjust to their calls for. It’s vital to start out with an important factors: our techniques had been by no means…
— Nick Percoco (@c7five) April 13, 2026
Kraken’s Nick Percoco stated it gained’t reveal any extra extortion particulars as an investigation is carried out.
On this occasion, Percoco says the agency was capable of revoke the employees member’s entry and enact extra safety controls.
Percoco says the agency has since realized of one other extra “recent” breach, and as earlier than, it terminated the person’s entry to firm techniques.
He claims that Kraken then obtained extortion calls for.
“The criminals threatened to distribute materials from both the February 2025 incident and the recent incident to media outlets and on social media if we did not comply. We will not pay these criminals,” he stated.
Shoppers included within the leaks had been knowledgeable, and Percoco stated it solely affected “approximately 2,000 in total (0.02% of clients).”
He added that the agency believes “there is sufficient evidence to support the identification and arrest of those responsible.”
“We are actively working with federal law enforcement across multiple jurisdictions to pursue all individuals involved and bring them to justice,” he stated.
Protos contacted Kraken for additional particulars concerning the extortion and why it disclosed the February 2025 breach over a yr later, and was informed by a spokesperson, “A prison group is threatening to launch details about a safety incident if we don’t meet their extortion calls for.
“We will not negotiate with bad actors and have therefore transparently shared what happened in a post on X.”
Stolen information from Kraken seems to have been listed on the market earlier this yr on Russian-speaking prison boards. The seller claimed to promote “panel access” login credentials that will give consumers read-only entry to Kraken’s know your buyer documentation, transaction histories, and help tickets.
Billion-dollar crypto change Coinbase was additionally extorted in 2025 after its buyer help employees leaked buyer information.
On this case, cybercriminals bribed employees after which used the leaked information to attempt to blackmail Coinbase out of $20 million.
Protos has reached out to Kraken for remark and can replace this piece ought to we hear something again.
