Between the 17th and the 24th of August, wallets tied to sanctioned exchange HTX sent roughly 12,000 dust transfers into Kraken user addresses.
The deposits tripped Kraken's AML controls and froze the accounts. Access has been restored, but Kraken still holds 4.2 million it considers tainted, and restored access is not the same as getting your money back.
HTX denies all involvement.
Look at the asymmetry. Sending dust from an address you know is sanctioned costs an attacker close to nothing, even at current mempool rates. It can cost the victim their entire account.
This is what coin control is for, and it is what leaving coins on an exchange can cost you.
https://ungovernable.network/shows/bitcoin-brief/the-ai-pocalypse-continues/
npub1jc…n2890
2026-09-03 15:00:00 UTC
Author Public Key
npub1jcympy69pht7ptan39se4nd09e4q66qhey649uu3rczm2zh88c7s0n2890Seen on
wss://nos.lolPublished at
2026-09-03 15:00:00 UTCEvent JSON
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"pubkey": "9609b093450dd7e0afb389619acdaf2e6a0d6817c93552f3911e05b50ae73e3d",
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"kind": 1,
"tags": [],
"content": "Between the 17th and the 24th of August, wallets tied to sanctioned exchange HTX sent roughly 12,000 dust transfers into Kraken user addresses.\n\nThe deposits tripped Kraken's AML controls and froze the accounts. Access has been restored, but Kraken still holds 4.2 million it considers tainted, and restored access is not the same as getting your money back.\n\nHTX denies all involvement.\n\nLook at the asymmetry. Sending dust from an address you know is sanctioned costs an attacker close to nothing, even at current mempool rates. It can cost the victim their entire account.\n\nThis is what coin control is for, and it is what leaving coins on an exchange can cost you.\n\nhttps://ungovernable.network/shows/bitcoin-brief/the-ai-pocalypse-continues/\n\nhttps://video.nostr.build/a011c6dad6eab86ba7a11643a9d04c05e9eed6de5a851c3b465e66ad9dd99900.mp4",
"sig": "427c3132ddaf0b8b250f113382ec9ef46917e6669f57040d4ee98f7a47cc6c9905cbc527c32c45e7e34b07c80fd77c509a6d5c918114e5abdb18639a963fb63e"
}