A Coinbase data breach filing with the Maine Attorney General finally gives us some more detail than Coinbase’s vague “less than 1% of monthly transacting users”. 69,461 people were affected, and Coinbase says the data breach occurred on December 26, 2024.
It took them almost five months between the incident and the incident disclosure, although the company has since admitted it knew customer support agents were suspiciously accessing customer data as far back as January.
Adam Levitin on the GENIUS Act:
[I]n regard to cash deposits, the stablecoin investors will have priority over the claims of ma-and-pa for their bank deposits (and thus over the FDIC's subrogation claim when it pays ma-and-pa).
Yes, you read that correctly: Congress is about to put the claims of stablecoin investors ahead of ma and pa's bank deposits. That's just stunning. Now ma-and-pa's deposits are FDIC insured, so they'll be alright, but it means the FDIC's Deposit Insurance Fund is footing the bill. In other words, the GENIUS Act is subsidizing stablecoin issuance on the back of bank deposits. By subordinating the FDIC's subrogation claim in a bank insolvency to the claims of stablecoin investors, the GENIUS Act is effectively letting FDIC insurance leak out to cover uninsured stablecoins, without any insurance premiums paid.
Read · May 21, 2025
In April, Coinbase announced changes to its user agreement that added two clauses further limiting class action lawsuits and requiring lawsuits to be filed in New York. The changes apply to disputes initiated after May 15.
On May 14, Coinbase disclosed a data breach.
Read · May 12, 2025
Alex Mashinsky has been sentenced to twelve years in prison for his Celsius fraud, which culminated in the mid-2022 collapse of his US-based cryptocurrency lending firm with customers suffering losses of more than half a billion dollars.
Prosecutors have requested Alex Mashinsky, CEO of the collapsed Celsius cryptocurrency company, be sentenced to at least twenty years in prison for his "sustained, calculated campaign of deceit carried out over years, targeting ordinary people."
Prosecutors say that such a severe sentence is necessary not only for deterrence, but because despite his guilty plea, Mashinsky has not fully accepted responsibility for his actions.
Kevin O'Leary has sued crypto personality Ben Armstrong (aka "BitBoy Crypto") for repeatedly claiming O'Leary murdered two people.
![27. On March 19, 2025, Armstrong unleashed another tweet accusing O’Leary of committing “actual crimes”: “Doesn’t everybody think it’s weird that I’ve been publicly calling … @kevinolearytv [a] murderer[] and yet not a single word or legal action? It’s almost like they ‘can’t’ because a lawsuit would open up their actual crimes and they know it.”](https://storage.mollywhite.net/micro/cc6240fece1a25cdb952_Screenshot-2025-03-27-at-11.15.02---PM.png)
(O'Leary and his wife were indeed involved in a boating collision that killed two people in 2019; O'Leary states in the lawsuit that it was his wife driving the boat, and she was acquitted of any charges.)
Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal again making oblique legal threats to chill criticism of Coinbase, suggesting to The Hill that it might be “defamatory” for me or Public Citizen to draw a line from their political spending to the current crypto regulatory environment.
Read · Feb 13, 2025
