Coinbase customer data theft investigated by Justice Department

The US Justice Department has opened a probe into a recent breach at the leading cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Global, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Investigators, including those in the department’s criminal division in Washington, are digging into the circumstances surrounding the breach, said the person, who asked not to be identified discussing the investigation. Coinbase has said the hack involved criminals bribing employees and contractors in India to obtain client data.

A representative for the Justice Department declined to comment.

“We have notified and are working with the DOJ and other US and international law enforcement agencies and welcome law enforcement’s pursuit of criminal charges against these bad actors,” said Paul Grewal, Coinbase’s chief legal officer.

The largest US crypto exchange disclosed on Thursday that hackers bribed customer representatives to steal the data and then asked for $20 million in ransom to cover it up. Coinbase said in the filing that it received an anonymous email from the hackers making the ransom demand on May 11.

In its filing last week, Coinbase added that in the months leading up to that email it had detected instances of customer support agents outside of the US collecting data from internal Coinbase systems. Those people have been fired, Coinbase said. The company estimated the incident could cost the firm as much as $400 million to remedy.

The thieves deployed what’s called a social engineering attack — where criminals use people to gain unauthorized access to data, rather than exploiting flaws in computer code.

© 2025 Bloomberg

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