On August 27th Coinbase sent out an email/notification to some accountholders (~125,000) that their two factor authentication had been changed. This was sent out in error, but lead to some customers selling off crypto as they were worried their account had been compromised. Today Coinbase has sent out an e-mail apologizing for this error and also offering compensation. We have seen reports of compensation of $100, $500 and even $1,000. Some account holders only received an e-mail with apology and no compensation.
Hat tip to readers Andrew & Alex
Got that 2FA email, immediately move all my BTC into Coinbase vault, did not get any compensation.
I received the 2FA email, and as a result locked my account, coin base gave me $100 BTC for the inconvenience. yes i was worried, but i think they did the right thing and the communication was spot on from them. This happened over the weekend and btc was deposited on monday
1. Make sure you use 2FA through an app on your phone like Google Authenticator, not through SMS.
2. Use whitelisting.
3. Don’t hold funds on Coinbase. As soon as you can, move them to a wallet like MetaMask or Ledger.
“whitelisting” can you elaborate a bit about it?
can you google a bit about it?
Most crypto exchanges (I believe Coinbase is included) allow you to disable withdrawals to all external wallets/accounts except for certain ones that you can “whitelist.” So, by whitelisting your personal bank account or your crypto wallet address, the hackers would only be able to input withdrawal orders to those addresses and none others, which prevents them from stealing your funds.
Now, if they gain access to your account, they could add their own accounts to the whitelist, or they could simply disable whitelisting. But usually, there’s a 3-7 day period after you do either of those things where withdrawals are disabled, so you hopefully have time to stop them.
Very important info, got it, thanks!
I have about $50 in the account due to the various free crypto promotions, received the 2fa change email and then a sincere apology email on the 27th but nothing of value.
They only awarded customers who sold / withdrew, figuring they were at risk of losing them as customers. If you didn’t make any move, then they weren’t worried about losing you.
My friend is so lucky. He had no idea that this 2FA mistake happened. But on the same day, I convinced him to switch over to Celsius for better interest rates. He withdrew his balance from Coinbase, and they sent him $1,000 as a result. Lucky bastard!
I just happened to sell my holdings shortly after the email. Sounds like we both got lucky lol
he should def give you half lol
God you’re stoopid
Too bad I never received anything in error.
My account is still locked….. Said its under investigation and would get back to me. Sounds like my funds have been stolen and theyre trying to figure out how to get away without compensation.. Nice to know they are handing money out to keep people as customers.
I get occasional e-mail reminders to enable 2FA on CB Pro due to being a “high-value client” or whatever, but I also keep seeing horror stories of married couples getting accounts drained via SIM swapping.
I’m still waiting for some 21-year-old living in a Brooklyn apartment to hack me, but so far the most exciting thing that’s happened to me is me forgetting my password.
Guess hackers are moving up in this world… Brooklyn apartment??! Have you seen the rents lately
SIM swapping would be if you use text messages for 2FA. Don’t do that. Use an app like Google Authenticator.
It’s better, yes, but the best option is using a hardware key to authenticate.
Coinbase pulling a Robinhood uh?
No way Robinhood would have compensated anyone, and in only 5 days?
That would have been one stressful email. Glad I didn’t get it.
And this is suppose to be our currency of the future? lol
Coinbase isn’t a currency of now or of the future.
Coinbase is a currency? Since when?
Someone hasn’t learned a thing from the dozens of educational videos they’ve been paid to watch.
Sorry you all misunderstood. Coinbase, an electronic repository of crypto currency, ( and supposedly one of the better ones) is considered so insecure by some that they feel compelled to dump their holdings out of fear of losing them. How are you going to get the masses to put their money into this which is what is needed to get crypto to really take off.
Sorry, the one who has misunderstood is 𝓎𝑜𝓊. You just googled what coinbase is but still have no idea what it is or how it works because you aren’t a user. You’re also conflating exchanges with crypto itself. The masses don’t need to put anything into Coinbase because there are other CEXs, to say nothing of the dozens of other DEXs that exist. Coinbase isn’t even the most popular one by volume or user base.
This isn’t a defense of coinbase. It’s all right but it has high fees comparatively and I don’t really use it all that much except for the free money videos we all like. But you’re just doubling down on your bad take?
This screw up had nothing to do with crypto. It could have been a traditional bank which made this exact same error.
To be clear, I’m not making a comment one way or the other on the “currency of the future” part.