Kraken Temporarily Suspends Accounts Following "Dust Attack"

The cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has paused services for some customers due to a series of small transactions from wallets linked to HTX, as reported by Bloomberg.

Between August 17 and August 24, Kraken received approximately 12,000 transfers, mostly ranging from a few cents to several dollars.

Kraken referred to this incident as a "dust attack." The exchange believes that the sender aimed to distribute funds associated with the sanctioned HTX across multiple platforms to trigger automatic account checks.

"We do not know who is behind these attacks," stated representatives of the exchange.

The assumption was that receiving funds from a sanctioned source would lead to a complete account suspension. Initially, this is what occurred, leading to temporary access restrictions.

Eventually, the compliance team restored access; however, the assets involved remain frozen. The exchange also mentioned that it has notified the appropriate authorities.

HTX Denies Involvement

HTX has stated that an internal investigation found no evidence of its official accounts being involved in these small transfers. The company is looking into whether the wallet was mistakenly linked to the exchange or if an external attacker was responsible for the transactions.

"If you look closely at Moon's article, you can see where the issue lies. First, we immediately checked all internal accounts and found no official activity. Logically, if Huobi had such a plan, it could have executed it a month or two ago without waiting until now, especially as we are nearing a resolution with the UK and the overall regulatory environment is improving..."

— HTX Molly (@HTX_Molly) August 20, 2026

On May 26, the UK imposed sanctions against Huobi Global SA. In July, the European Union joined these sanctions, adding HTX (formerly Huobi Global SA) to the list of organizations with which transactions are prohibited. This ban took effect for the exchange on August 23.

It is worth noting that in 2022, an unknown user distributed 0.1 ETH from addresses associated with Tornado Cash to wallets of notable figures in the crypto industry, including Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and Tron founder Justin Sun. Following such a transfer, Aave temporarily suspended Sun's wallet. Later, TRM Labs analysts identified similar "dust attacks" as a challenge for compliance with sanctions.