Coin Base CEO says the company will not pay hackers’ ransom

Coin Base CEO Brian Armstrong said in A Social Media Post On Thursday, a ransom note arrived via email, which demanded $ 20 million in BitCoin, in return for not releasing hackers to the base users of coins.

“I’m going to answer publicly,” said Armstrong. “We’re not going to pay the ransom.”

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– Brian Armstrong (@Brian_ Armstrong) May 15, 2025

Armstrong said the attackers received a “weak link” customer service agent outside the United States, which accepted “bribe” and gave users personal data.

In a company Blog PostCoin Base said he would pay customers to send funds to the attacker. Hackers got access to names, addresses, phone numbers and emails. Masked social security number (the last four digits only); Masked bank – account number; And government photos (driver’s license, passport). The company says no passwords or private keys were obtained. The email arrived on Sunday.

Related: Think you can hack in Apple Intelligence servers? Apple Million is paying up to 1 million if you can.

“Stolen data) allows them to carry out social engineering attacks where they can call our customers to imitate Coinbase customer support and try to send their funds to the attackers,” said Armstrong, “(stolen data) allows them to carry out social engineering attacks.

According to the appCoin Base estimates a Filing With the SEC, it can “spend between $ 180 million and $ 400 million” regarding the treatment costs and volunteer consumer payments. “

On the other hand, New York Times Reports Whether the SEC is investigating a separate Quinn base or not Invalid numbers reported During his IPO in 2021. The company claims that marketing content has more than 100 million “certified users”.

Following the news, the coin base stock declined by 7 % on Thursday, Per yahoo.

Related: More than 10 billion passwords have been exposed in the biggest password hack of date