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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.

Data Breach Notifications Entity Information Type of Organization: Financial Services Entity Name: Coinbase, Inc. Street Address: 248 3rd Street #434 City: Oakland State, or Country if outside the US: CA Zip Code: 94607 Submitted By Name: Michael Rubin Title: Attorney Firm name (if different than entity): Latham and Watkins LLP Telephone Number: (415) 395-8154 Email Address: michael.rubin@lw.com Relationship to entity whose information was compromised: Outside Counsel Breach Information Total number of persons affected (including residents): 69461 Total number of Maine residents affected: Approximately 217 If the number of Maine residents exceeds 1,000, have the consumer reporting agencies been notified: Date(s) Breach Occured: December 26, 2024 Date Breach Discovered: May 11, 2025 Description of the Breach: Insider wrongdoing Information Acquired - Name or other personal identifier in combination with: Notification and Protection Services Type of Notification: Written Date(s) of consumer notification: May 30, 2025 Copy of notice to affected Maine residents: Appendix_A_-_Coinbase_Template_Individual_Notification_Letter.pdf Date of any previous (within 12 months) breach notifications: 07/16/2024 Were identity theft protection services offered: Yes If yes, please provide the duration, the provider of the service and a brief description of the service: We are offering all impacted individuals one year of free credit monitoring and identity protection services provided by IDX. The services include credit monitoring, a $1,000,000 insurance reimbursement policy and identity restoration, and dark web monitoring to identify if any information is made available through illegal online forums.

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.

Security researchers who have spent months trying to call Coinbase’s attention to serious issues at the company are disputing Coinbase’s claims about the timing of the breach. “Threat actors had ongoing access via multiple insiders over a prolonged period of time.”

Oh good apparently now the Coinbase breach happened on Dec 26, 2024. LOL So since Coinbase won't be straight with you, I will. Threat actors had ongoing access via multiple insiders over a prolonged period of time. (Screenshot of Maine AG notification)
As evidence, here's a very small cutout of one high value customer's Coinbase account. This wasn't pulled on Dec 26, 2024 honey. (Screenshot showing dates between 2025-02-07 and 2025-02-10)

The SEC requires material cybersecurity incidents be disclosed within four business days; state laws often have a 30-day disclosure deadline. It’s not clear if customers outside the US were affected; if so, other disclosure laws may apply.

The SEC has just filed a lawsuit against Unicoin, its CEO, and promoters, accusing them of “a massive securities offering fraud” amounting to more than $100 million. The SEC had reportedly previously tried to negotiate a settlement, but Unicoin refused it.

The SEC warned Unicoin of impending civil charges in December 2024, after the company decided after Trump’s election that they would breach a standstill agreement they’d entered with the agency.

The Unicoin crypto investment company say they have received a Wells notice from the SEC,c warning them of impending legal action involving not only unregistered securities offerings, but also fraud and deceptive business practices. Unicoin’s CEO Alex Konanykhin said the company received subpoenas earlier this year focused on the company’s eponymous token, which they say is backed by real-world assets including real estate. This is not the first SEC investigation into Unicoin, though previous ones did not result in any legal action. Unlike most crypto projects, Unicoin self-identifies its token as a security. While Unicoin had previously agreed with the SEC that they would not to try to go public or undertake ICOs, Konanykhin said they had decided to breach the agreement after Trump won the presidency.
As the SEC has dropped the majority of its ongoing lawsuits and investigations into cryptocurrency firms, most recently the Immutable web3 gaming company, a few firms seem to be getting a little nervous. Unicoin, a firm that announced shortly after Trump’s election that they would breach the 2024 “standstill” agreement they had reached with the SEC [I72] (and then did so), is now writing letters to the agency asking why their case has yet to be dropped. “We thought the war was over, and we said to the SEC, ‘Hey, we’re resuming our activity,’” explained Unicoin CEO Alex Konanykhin. Like some other industry executives, Konanykhin has gone beyond merely asking for an end to the enforcement case, and in his letter seeks retribution against the SEC employee who led the investigation into his company.14

(Note: Unicoin is not to be confused with the Uniswap decentralized exchange.)

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.
“Forcing Bank Deposits to Subsidize Stablecoins: the GENIUS Act”.
Adam Levitin in Credit Slips.
Whatever else one might think about stablecoins or the GENIUS Act, its insolvency provisions are an absolute mess, both conceptually and in drafting. If the GENIUS Act becomes the law, we're in for a FUBAR situation when a stablecoin issuer ends up insolvent. Even more concerning, if a bank custodian for a stablecoin issuer's reserves ends up insolvent, the claims of the stablecoin investors will come ahead of the bank depositors. That's right. Crypto comes ahead of ma-and-pa.  The effect: stablecoins are being subsidized by bank deposits. Now that's GENIUS.

Coinbase was aware that support reps were suspiciously accessing customer data when its CEO tweeted that the CFPB should be "deleted". Among other things, the CFPB has pursued legal action against financial companies that failed to secure sensitive customer data.

Tweet by Brian Armstrong @brian_armstrong on February 8, 2025 100% the right call The CFPB is unconstitutional on the face of it. And even if it wasn’t, it should be deleted as we already have DOJ to prosecute fraud, and (many) other financial services regulators. It’s an activist organization that has done enormous harm to the country. Quoted tweet: Kekius Maximus @elonmusk CFPB RIP 🪦 Readers added context they thought people might want to know The Supreme Court, ruled (7-2 decision) that the CFPB's funding mechanism does not violate the Constitution. Justice Thomas wrote the majority opinion, stating that the CFPB's funding fits w/in the framework of congressional appropriations.

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.

Coinbase logo  4/12/2025 Update to the Coinbase User Agreement We are emailing you about an important upcoming update to the Coinbase User Agreement. This update will revise our Arbitration Agreement with you. We made these updates to streamline the process for resolving disputes. You can read the entire agreement here. The revised terms are in sections 9.9, 9.10 and Appendix 6. These terms apply only to disputes that you or we initiate after May 15, 2025. The current terms will continue to apply until May 15. Please make sure you read the updated User Agreement. Thank you for being part of the crypto economy! Team Coinbase
9.9. Class, Collective, Representative, and Mass Action Waiver and Jury Trial Waiver. You and Coinbase agree that, except as specified in the Batch Arbitration Provision set forth above, each of us may bring claims against the other only on an individual basis and not on a class, representative, or collective basis or as part of a mass action (such as a mass arbitration), and the parties hereby waive all rights to bring or to participate in such actions in arbitration or in court to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law. This provision does not prevent you or Coinbase from participating in a class-wide settlement of claims. YOU AND WE AGREE TO WAIVE OUR RIGHTS TO A JURY TRIAL. To the extent that any Dispute proceeds in court, and to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, you and we agree to waive any right to a jury trial and have such matter resolved by a judge (also known as a bench trial). 9.10 Forum Selection. Unless you and Coinbase agree otherwise, to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, the state and federal courts in New York, New York (except for small claims courts, in which case you and we agree to resolve our Disputes in a small claims court of competent jurisdiction) will have exclusive jurisdiction over any Dispute that is not subject to arbitration or over any action involving the applicability or enforceability of the Dispute Resolution section 7 or any portion of the Dispute Resolution section (including the Arbitration Agreement, Appendix 5). You and Coinbase consent to the exclusive jurisdiction of these courts and waive any objections as to: (1) personal jurisdiction or (2) the laying of venue in such courts because of inconvenient forum or any other basis or right to seek to transfer or change venue of any such action to another court.

Five lawsuits have been filed against Coinbase in response to the breach since then: all class action, none before May 15, two outside of New York.

new lorna shore single confirming my hypothesis that this band is incapable of releasing anything besides masterpieces

Coinbase announces it's joining the S&P 500 and then announces a serious data breach two days later.

oof.

The only data Coinbase has disclosed about the scale of the breach is that it affects "less than 1% of Coinbase monthly transacting users", which seems super cagey.

“Don’t hurt anyone. Never bully people weaker than yourself. Help out those in need. Some would say that these rules are obvious. But the truth is, the obvious is no longer obvious in today’s world. What’s worse is that some people even ask why. They don't understand why they shouldn't hurt other people. It's not a simple thing to explain. It’s not logical. But if they read books they will understand. It’s far more important than using logic to explain something. Human beings don’t live alone, and a book is a way to show them that.”

Rintaro did his best to explain to the invisible listener.

“I think the power of books is that—that they teach us to care about others. It’s a power that gives people courage and also supports them in turn.”

Rintaro broke off for a moment, biting his lip.

“Because you seem to have forgotten,” he resumed with all the strength he could muster, “I’m going to say it as loud as I can. Empathy—that's the power of books.”
– Sōsuke Natsukawa, The Cat Who Saved Books