Is Coinbase Safe After the $6 Billion Binance Hack?
Hackers took greater than $8 billion from Binance, Bybit, and Bitget in 20 months. None of the assaults stole the grasp passwords, often known as non-public keys. Each tricked the change’s personal techniques into approving withdrawals.
The danger reaches past change customers. Coinbase, which has disclosed no comparable theft, holds the Bitcoin behind most US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds ETFs. Its defenses now defend Wall Street’s cash too.
How Hackers Got Past 3 Exchanges
Binance misplaced about $6.3 billion on October 29. Co-CEO Richard Teng mentioned the $6 billion Binance heist started with an engineer’s compromised laptop computer. Binance discovered no proof of a key leak.
“To be clear: the attacker didn’t merely use one engineer’s permissions, and this was not a single ‘one-click’ motion,” Teng stated.
Bybit misplaced practically $1.5 billion in February 2025. Hackers planted code in Safe{Wallet}, an outdoor app Bybit used to approve transfers. Staff noticed one vacation spot whereas signing one other. The FBI blamed North Korea.
Bitget misplaced about $387.5 million in September. Attackers entered by flaws in outdoors safety merchandise. Fake withdrawal orders then handed by Bitget’s regular signing course of.
What Coinbase Does Differently
Coinbase makes use of multi-party computation (MPC), which splits every key into items saved on separate machines. Coinbase Institutional co-CEO Greg Tusar described it in 2025.
“MPC ensures that full non-public keys are by no means saved at relaxation, nor in any single machine throughout signing and when in use,” Tusar defined.
Coinbase additionally says it builds all security-critical software program in-house. Both Bitget and Bybit’s breach got here by third events.
Researcher Zeeme argues this blocks all three assault routes, since a stolen laptop computer yields one ineffective key piece.
Arkham information exhibits Coinbase wallets maintain about 959,000 BTC throughout 69.8 million addresses. That stake is price $74.7 billion at Bitcoin’s current price.
“Coinbase is protected. We’re monitoring worth volatility, monitoring stolen funds on-chain, and remaining vigilant as ever,” Rob Witoff, Coinbase Chief Technology Officer.
“We are blocking sends to compromised Binance wallets and have made some changes to our chilly storage techniques solely out of an abundance of warning. Again,” mentioned Jeff Lunglhofer, CSO at Coinbase.
No Platform Is Immune To Security Incidents
Nevertheless, Coinbase will not be breach-free. In 2025, criminals bribed abroad assist employees to leak buyer information. Coinbase put the price at $180 million to $400 million, based on The Register, however mentioned funds have been by no means accessible.
Its measurement can be a danger. Researcher Marc Baumann estimated in April that Coinbase holds 84% of US spot Bitcoin ETF belongings.
By Baumann’s rely, that places about $77 billion with a single custodian. Not each issuer depends on Coinbase alone. Fidelity holds its personal fund’s Bitcoin, and Morgan Stanley names BNY as a second custodian.
For ETF holders, the take a look at is whether or not Coinbase’s checks maintain the place its rivals’ failed. All three thefts hit the approval step, which Coinbase says it screens for tampering earlier than any switch is signed.
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