According to reports, in 2020, Kronos Research, a top-five worldwide cryptocurrency quantitative trading team, lost $1.4 million (about 42 million Taiwanese dollars). Two displeased engineers at the organisation were found to be the main culprits behind this significant loss. Unhappy about not getting their promised bonuses, these people maliciously changed the code that was used to simulate trading situations and perform predictive analyses. For the corporation, this interference produced less than ideal virtual currency investing choices.
According to court records, Mr. Chen worked as an engineer at Kronos Research from September 2018 to May 2020. He and other team members created the “Zeus” automated trading system.
Kronos Holdings, a company based in the Cayman Islands, started using the Zeus programme for cryptocurrency trading after it was finished. Between October 2018 and May 2020, a different engineer named Mr. Xu was in charge of software development and important system security maintenance.
But before leaving the company, Chen and Xu worked together to introduce mistakes into the simulation and predictive analysis code because they were angry at Kronos Research and Kronos Cayman for not paying out the promised incentives. On May 1 through May 3, 2018, Xu specifically changed a code section from “x:x[1]” to “x:-x[1]”. This update made the programme confuse the “worst combination” for the “best combination,” which resulted in unfavourable investment choices.
Additionally, on the ninth day of the same month, Chen wrote a programme that Xu used to change electromagnetic records. The Zeus programme miscalculated the price movements on the bitcoin market as a result of this meddling, and it made incorrect trades. Later, the pair removed these changes to hide their tracks. Chen also gained access to private investment strategy information after leaving the company via obscure techniques.
The defence argued that the system’s safety features were unaffected and that the adjustments only resulted in a “suboptimal” investment mix. The judge, nonetheless, rejected these claims.
The court gave Chen an 8-month term, which may be converted to a fine, and Xu received a 10-month sentence, which can also be converted to a fine, for the pair’s misuse of their technological talents, which caused significant injury to the business and their refusal to agree on restitution.