Coinbase Breach Exposes 1% of Users—$400M Time Bomb Ticks for Crypto Giant

Another day, another crypto exchange with a ’minor’ security oopsie. Coinbase joins the hall of fame after attackers siphoned data from 1% of its user base—because in finance, even ’small’ leaks sink ships.

The breach could trigger a $400 million liability—roughly equivalent to the annual budget of a mid-sized country, or just another Tuesday in DeFi land. Insiders whisper the exploit bypassed MFA protections, proving once again that blockchain is only as strong as its weakest link (usually humans).

While Coinbase scrambles to plug holes, traders shrug and buy the dip—because nothing fuels crypto adoption like a high-profile hack. Just ask Mt. Gox survivors.

Coinbase: Stolen funds, SEC probe

The threat actors accessed contact details including IDs, emails, and phone numbers. They also got account balance data, but didn’t access private keys, hot or cold wallets. 

Source: Coinbase

The revelation comes after several complaints of hacks from Coinbase users since early 2025.

In early May alone, renowned Web3 investigator ZachXBT flagged $45M stolen from the exchange. 

“Another $45M+ was stolen from Coinbase users via social engineering scams in just the last week. Interestingly, no other major exchange has the same problem.”

ZachXBT stated that the stolen Coinbase funds were about 9 figures for the past four months.

With the customer data, the criminals pretended to be exchange support and tricked them into releasing their crypto. However, the firm assured affected users that they would be refunded. 

“We will reimburse customers who were tricked into sending funds to the attacker due to social engineering attacks.” 

According to a disclosure filed by the SEC, the exchange liability from affected users could be around $180M-$400M. 

The crypto firm debuted on the S&P 500 Index this week, but the milestone has been marred by the hack and another SEC investigation. 

According to a New York Times report, the regulator was probing the exchange for falsifying user numbers (claimed 100 million verified users) during the 2021 IPO (initial public offering) preparation. 

Collectively, the updates dragged its share, COIN, down 7% on Thursday to $240, erasing some of the gains linked to S&P 500 Index inclusion and broader crypto stocks rally. 

Source: COIN, TradingView