Coinbase hacker mocked ZachXBT after moving $42M in BTC, following a massive breach affecting over 69,000 users.
Coinbase recently suffered a breach that impacted over 69,000 users. The attacker behind this incident has openly mocked prominent crypto investigator ZachXBT. Known for exposing scams within the crypto space, ZachXBT revealed that the attacker taunted him through a public Ethereum transaction. He shared details of the mockery on his Telegram channel, Investigations.
The large-scale exploit is believed to have cost Coinbase users over $300 million. On May 21, the attacker utilized Ethereum’s input data message feature to write “L bozo” during a transaction in which they swapped over $42.5 million worth of Bitcoin for Ether using Thorchain.
Attached to the message “L bozo,” a slang term used to call someone a loser, was a link to a YouTube video featuring NBA legend James Worthy smoking a cigar. The implication appeared to be that the attacker views the on-chain investigator as a loser, likely suggesting that ZachXBT is incapable of catching them.
ZachXBT’s Telegram channel Investigations.
According to data from Etherscan, the same wallet address, labeled “Fake_Phishing1158790,” transferred an additional 8,698 ETH (approximately $22.6 million) roughly an hour after publishing the messages mocking ZachXBT.
Coinbase Breach
Information belonging to Coinbase users was compromised after attackers persuaded certain overseas customer support agents to grant them unauthorized access to internal systems. Following the breach, the attackers demanded a $20 million ransom from Coinbase in exchange for not selling users’ personal data on the dark web.
Coinbase declined the ransom request and instead launched a $20 million bounty program to reward individuals who could provide credible leads on the perpetrators.Meanwhile, the attackers used the stolen data to scam several users out of their cryptocurrencies, losses that Coinbase has pledged to reimburse.
As a result of the breach, Coinbase estimates it may need to spend between $180 million and $400 million to reimburse affected users and manage the fallout.
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