CertiK, a blockchain security firm, has addressed inquiries about Kraken’s accusation of stealing funds and provided clarification on several important points.
On the post X, Certik came up with questions and answers, where they started by asserting that during their testing activities, which involved creating crypto assets “out of air,” no actual Kraken user lost funds. The cryptocurrencies involved were minted for research purposes, ensuring no direct impact on real user assets.
Recently, CertiK has confirmed its involvement as the security researcher behind an incident where Kraken accused them of exploiting a vulnerability to remove $3 million in digital assets from the exchange.
Regarding the question of returning and total amount of the funds, CertiK affirms, “Yes, all funds that we held have been returned, but the total amount differs from what Kraken commanded. We based the return on our records.”
CertiK has returned the funds including, 29,001 USDT, 1021.1 XMR, and 734.19215 ETH. However, Kraken had asked for different amounts of several cryptocurrencies, including, “requested 155818.4468 MATIC, 907400.1803 USDT, 475.5557871 ETH, 1089.794737 XMR.”
CertiK needed time to test the limit of Kraken’s protection and risk controls. After testing over five days, CertiK disclosed vulnerability details to Kraken and informed them. They communicated with Kraken via multiple channels and provided a detailed report, leading Kraken to reportedly fix the identified issue within 47 minutes of receiving the report.
Furthermore, CertiK did not participate in Kraken’s bounty program initially but contacted Kraken officials and CSO Nick directly through social media and email to report their findings.
“We never mentioned any bounty request. It was Kraken which first mentioned their bounty to us, while we responded that the bounty was not the priority topic and we wanted to make sure the issue was fixed,” cleared by CertiK.
However, afterwards, Kraken also said, “We can now confirm the funds have been returned (minus a small amount lost to fees).”
These clarification statement aims to address concerns and provide transparency about CertiK’s actions and communications throughout their testing and disclosure process with Kraken.
