Coinbase Faces the Hacklash!

Coinbase has been hit with at least six lawsuits after the crypto exchange's recent data breach.

Danielle du Toit
May 19, 2025

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Coinbase has been hit with at least six lawsuits over the crypto exchange's recent data breach.

Coinbase is facing at least six lawsuits that were filed between May 15–16, with users alleging the exchange failed to protect their personal data and mishandled the breach response.
The lawsuits follow Coinbase's confirmation on May 15 of a major data breach that involved a $20 million extortion attempt linked to bribed customer support agents.
Some of the stolen user data includes names, emails, phone numbers, Social Security digits, ID documents, bank details, and account activity snapshots.

Vladimir Smerkis, co-founder of Telegram-based crypto project Blum, was arrested in Moscow.

Vladimir Smerkis, co-founder of the crypto project Blum, was arrested in Moscow on May 18 for suspected large-scale fraud under Article 159 of the Russian Criminal Code.
The investigation reportedly focuses on Smerkis’ earlier ventures, The Token Fund and Tokenbox, which allegedly led to $15 million in investor losses.
Blum confirmed that Smerkis stepped down as chief marketing officer and is no longer affiliated with the company.

Metaplanet made its second-largest single Bitcoin purchase ever after scooping up more than 1,000 Bitcoin.

Metaplanet purchased 1,004 BTC on May 19 for approximately $104.6 million, bringing its total Bitcoin holdings to 7,800 BTC.
This was the firm’s second-largest Bitcoin buy, following a 1,241 BTC purchase on May 12.
Metaplanet now holds the most BTC among Asian public firms and ranks tenth globally. Buying 301 more BTC would move it ahead of Galaxy Digital into ninth place.

A heated debate reignited in the Bitcoin development community over the persistent rise of spam inscriptions on the network.

A new debate erupted in the Bitcoin community over inscription spam, with concerns that non-financial data like JPEGs are bloating the blockchain and undermining Bitcoin’s monetary purpose.
Developer GrassFedBitcoin mentioned a proposed Bitcoin Core update, pull request #28408, which would let node operators more easily reject arbitrary inscription data.
Economist Saifedean Ammous backed the proposal, and even offered to help fund a developer to make inscription spam harder and more costly to propagate.

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