Hyderabad Police have arrested a former Coinbase customer service agent linked to a bribery scheme. The access reportedly exposed sensitive information from thousands of users and prompted a $20 million ransom demand. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong shared news of the arrest online, stating that the company will continue to track down everyone involved. He said, “We have zero tolerance for bad behavior and will continue to work with law enforcement to bring bad actors to justice.”
The breach began long before Coinbase revealed it in May 2025. Internal security logs revealed that Coinbase’s team noticed strange activity as early as January, months before they understood how deep the problem ran.
In May, the hackers finally made their move, demanding a $20 million ransom and threatening to leak customer information on the dark web if Coinbase didn’t pay. The incident left Coinbase with nearly $400 million in recovery costs and customer reimbursements. Armstrong refused to yield, and Coinbase redirected the $20 million to a public bounty for anyone who could help identify and catch the criminals. This bold move turned the ransom demand into a reward for their capture.
This makes it one of the ten costliest security incidents in the history of decentralized finance. As expected, the market responded quickly to this news. Coinbase’s stock COIN fell 1.18% to $236.90 after the update.
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