Coinbase, the most important U.S. cryptocurrency trade, disclosed a major information breach in Might 2025, affecting lower than 1% of its customers. Hackers bribed abroad help brokers to steal private information, prompting Coinbase to supply a $20 million bounty for info resulting in the culprits’ arrest. The breach may price the corporate up to $400 million, elevating considerations about centralized trade safety.
$400M Coinbase Breach Hits Much less Than 97,000 Customers
On Might 15, 2025, Coinbase revealed a serious cybersecurity incident involving the theft of non-public information from a small subset of its prospects, estimated at lower than 1% of its month-to-month transacting customers (MTUs), roughly 97,000 prospects based mostly on the corporate’s 9.7 million MTUs reported in its March 2025 annual report.
Cyber criminals bribed and recruited rogue abroad help brokers to tug private information on https://t.co/SidVn59JCV
— Coinbase 🛡️ (@coinbase) Might 15, 2025
Hackers orchestrated the breach by bribing and recruiting rogue abroad help brokers and contractors, who leaked delicate info, together with names, cellphone numbers, addresses, authorities IDs, partial Social Safety numbers, and account particulars. No passwords, personal keys, or funds had been compromised, and Coinbase’s Prime accounts remained unaffected. The corporate estimates the monetary impression may vary from $180 million to $400 million, overlaying buyer reimbursements and restoration efforts.
Learn extra: Coinbase Caught in $15M Rug Pull Scandal – Is Base Nonetheless Secure?
The attackers demanded a $20 million ransom to withhold the stolen information from public launch, which Coinbase refused to pay. As a substitute, the trade fired the concerned employees, introduced plans to press felony prices, and established a $20 million reward fund for info resulting in the perpetrators’ arrest and conviction.
Coinbase’s Safety Observe File Underneath Scrutiny
This breach provides to Coinbase’s historical past of safety challenges.
Learn extra: Is Coinbase Secure?
The trade has confronted prior incidents, together with a 2021 hack affecting over 6,000 customers, the place hackers exploited a flaw in SMS-based two-factor authentication (2FA) via phishing scams, and a 2023 try by the Octopus hacker group that didn’t compromise person funds.
Regardless of strong safety measures – resembling storing 98% of property in offline chilly storage, AES-256 encryption, and insurance coverage for decent wallets – Coinbase has struggled with technical points like server crashes throughout high-traffic intervals and account restoration vulnerabilities. These incidents gas person skepticism, with some reporting difficulties acquiring well timed help.
The 2025 breach, attributed to insider threats moderately than a direct system hack, underscores the dangers of human error in centralized exchanges. TechCrunch reported that the hackers focused help employees, exploiting their entry to delicate techniques. This tactic echoes a 2023 phishing assault linked to the 0ktapus group, which briefly compromised Coinbase’s techniques.
In line with blockchain investigator ZackXBT, over $45 million was stolen from Coinbase customers in early Might 2025 via social engineering scams. These incidents counsel that organized crime teams are more and more focusing on crypto platforms and their customers.
ZachXBT: It’s suspected a Coinbase person was scammed yesterday for $34.9M (400.099 BTC). Additionally a number of different suspected thefts from Coinbase customers previously two weeks bringing the whole stolen this month to $46M+. Funds from every theft had been bridged from Bitcoin to Ethereum by way of…
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) March 28, 2025