In brief
- Coinbase said last week that hackers that stole customer data attempted to blackmail it for $20 million in Bitcoin.
- The exchange confirmed Monday that it’s working with U.S. law enforcement to catch the cybercriminals.
America’s biggest crypto exchange Coinbase said Monday that it is working with law enforcement to investigate a recent hack that resulted in customer data being stolen—with the attackers demanding $20 million worth of Bitcoin in exchange for its return.
Coinbase confirmed to Decrypt that it is assisting the feds following the event, which it disclosed last week, and shared a statement from Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal. The confirmation came following a Monday report from Bloomberg noting that the U.S. Department of Justice had opened an investigation into the attack, citing a person familiar with the move.
Coinbase last week said that criminals sent the company a letter demanding the huge sum of crypto in exchange for stolen data. Instead, Coinbase co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong offered the same amount as a bounty to help catch the criminals.
“We have notified and are working with the DOJ and other U.S. and international law enforcement agencies, and welcome law enforcement’s pursuit of criminal charges against these bad actors,” said Grewal in Monday’s statement.
Coinbase declined to comment further. Decrypt reached out to the DOJ for comment, but did not immediately receive a response.
America’s biggest crypto exchange last week said that no funds, passwords, or private keys were compromised in the hack.
The exchange’s CEO, Brian Armstrong, said in a video statement posted on X that the exchange was “putting out a $20 million award for any information leading to the arrest and conviction of these attackers.”
San Francisco, California-based Coinbase allows users to buy, sell and bet on the future price of cryptocurrencies.
The exchange went public in 2021 and now trades on the Nasdaq under the ticker COIN. COIN was recently trading for $264 per share after a nearly 1% drop on the day.
Coinbase was added to the S&P 500 on Monday, as announced last week, leading to a nearly 14% surge in price over the last five trading days.
Edited by Andrew Hayward
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