The industry giant said in a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that an “unknown threat actor” emailed a demand on May 11 for $20 million, threatening to publish stolen data about Coinbase customers and other company information. Data published by cryptocurrency news site The Block says Coinbase had about 9.7 million monthly transacting users during the first quarter of this year, meaning that fewer than 100,000 were likely affected in the incident. The scheme did not capture login credentials or two-factor authentication codes, private keys, “the ability to move or access customer funds,” access to Coinbase Prime accounts or access to cryptocurrency wallets, the company said. They used cash offers to convince a small group of insiders to copy data in our customer support tools for less than 1% of Coinbase monthly transacting users,” the blog post said. Cryptocurrency trading platform Coinbase said it was the victim of an extortion attempt involving stolen data and is offering $20 million for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the perpetrator. The 8-K filing said Coinbase estimates it will spend $180 million to $400 million on remediation and response costs, but those numbers could change as it continues to assess the situation. Coinbase said it will reimburse anyone tricked into sending funds to the attacker and is “cooperating closely with law enforcement to pursue the harshest penalties possible.” It did not specify how many people already might have fallen for related scams. “We said no,” Coinbase said Thursday in a blog post explaining the incident.
This Cyber News was published on therecord.media. Publication date: Thu, 15 May 2025 12:39:59 +0000