Coinbase users may have lost as much as $46 million to suspected phishing scams over the past two weeks as rising crypto prices continue to attract bad actors to the industry.<\/p>\n
Scams such as address poisoning and wallet spoofing involve<\/a> tricking victims into sending assets to fraudulent wallet addresses that closely resemble legitimate ones.<\/p>\n According to blockchain investigator ZachXBT, multiple Coinbase-linked wallets have been targeted this month. A screenshot from blockchain explorer Blockchair shows a suspected 400 Bitcoin (BTC<\/a>) theft from a single wallet address.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is suspected a Coinbase user was scammed yesterday for $34.9M (400.099 BTC),\u201d the investigator wrote in a March 28 Telegram post<\/a>. \u201cAfter uncovering this theft I noticed multiple other suspected thefts from Coinbase users in the past two weeks bringing the total stolen this month to $46M+,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Suspected 400 BTC phishing theft victim. Source: <\/em>Blockchair<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n \u201cWe are aware of ZachXTB\u2019s claims and are investigating,\u201d Jaclyn Sales, director of communications at Coinbase, told Cointelegraph, adding:<\/p>\n \u201cCoinbase will never call you or ask for your login credentials, API key or two-factor authentication codes. We will also never ask you to transfer funds.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u201cIf someone contacts you claiming to be from Coinbase and requests this information or asks you to transfer assets, do not do it. It is a scam,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Related: <\/strong><\/em>Security concerns slow crypto payment adoption worldwide \u2014 Survey<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Scammers often impersonate large global brands to create a false sense of trust with victims.<\/p>\n US brands are often impersonated by scammers. Source: <\/em>Mailsuite<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n In the crypto industry, Coinbase was the most impersonated<\/a> brand by scammers, but Meta was targeted by over 25 times as many scammers as the cryptocurrency exchange, Cointelegraph reported in June 2024.<\/p>\n Coinbase is the world\u2019s third-largest centralized cryptocurrency exchange (CEX<\/a>), with over $1.6 billion of daily crypto trading volume, according<\/a> to CoinMarketCap.<\/p>\n To protect themselves, Coinbase users are advised to use a dedicated email account, enable two-factor authentication, set up an address allowlist, and use Coinbase Vault for additional security, the exchange said in a February blog post<\/a>.<\/p>\n Related: <\/strong><\/em>Sophisticated crypto address poisoning scams drain $1.2M in March<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Over $65 million may have been stolen from Coinbase users between December 2024 and January 2025 in \u201chigh confidence thefts,\u201d ZachXBT said in a Feb. 3 X post<\/a>. He added:<\/p>\n \u201cOur number is likely much lower than the actual amount stolen as our data was limited to my DMs and thefts we discovered on-chain which does not account for Coinbase support tickets and police reports we do not have access to.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\nScammers continue to impersonate top brands<\/h2>\n
History of phishing losses at Coinbase<\/h2>\n