Crypto Giant Coinbase Hit by $20M Extortion Plot: CEO Refuses to Pay, Offers Reward Instead

Holy smokes, Coinbase, the big kahuna of crypto exchanges, just got hit with a wild extortion scheme! Some shady characters claimed they had the goods on Coinbase's users and demanded a whopping $20 million to keep quiet.

On a crazy Thursday, May 15, Coinbase's fearless leader, Brian Armstrong, spilled the beans about this insane $20 million ransom email. But get this—Armstrong straight-up said they're not gonna play ball with these cyber crooks.

No tweet links needed, folks, the story's juicy enough!

These attackers were bold enough to threaten spilling the beans on Coinbase's customers if the exchange didn't cough up the cash. But Armstrong? He wasn't having it. He went public, slammed the door on the payment, and promised to chase these extortionists to the ends of the earth.

"Listen up, we got this nasty email at Coinbase, demanding $20 mil in Bitcoin or they'd spill our users' secrets," Armstrong declared. "But I'm telling these attackers straight up—no way, no how."

Instead of forking over the dough, Armstrong dropped a bombshell: Coinbase is putting up the same $20 million as a reward for anyone who helps nab these cyber creeps. And that's not all—they're beefing up their security like never before.

How Coinbase Attackers Snagged Customer Info

So, how'd these villains get their hands on the goods? Coinbase's internal sleuths found out the attackers zeroed in on their overseas customer support reps. Yep, they bribed some of these folks to spill the beans on sensitive user info.

These reps don't have the keys to the kingdom—no private keys or passwords—but they had enough dirt like birthdates and contact info. That was all the attackers needed to pull off some slick social engineering tricks. They'd call up users, pretending to be support agents, and sweet-talk them right out of their crypto.

Armstrong made it crystal clear: Coinbase's got the backs of any customers who got duped. They're even shuffling around some of their customer support centers, though Armstrong's keeping mum on the exact spots.