Coinbase Users Were Scammed Out of $65 Million in a Month, According to ZachXBT

Renowned blockchain investigator ZachXBT says Coinbase, the largest U.S.-based centralized crypto exchange, has failed to end social engineering scams on its platform, resulting in over $300 million worth of losses per year, according to a Feb. 3 X post thread.

ZachXBT and Tanuki42 from zeroShadow, a Web3 security platform, reviewed Coinbase withdrawals and data from direct messages on X. They found that from December 2024 to January 2025, Coinbase users lost approximately $65 million due to social engineering scams.

The investigation did not account for Coinbase support tickets and police reports, so the stolen amount may be higher than the estimated $65 million.

Jaclyn Sales, Director of Communications at Coinbase, has responded to The Defiant by advising users to hang up the phone on social engineering scams and advising people to read their resources.

Inside a Coinbase Scam

A Coinbase scam victim who lost approximately $850,000 told ZachXBT that a scammer contacted them using a spoofed phone number and gained their trust using personal information obtained from a private database. Then, they told the victim about multiple unauthorized login attempts on their account.

Afterward, they sent a fake email disguised as an official Coinbase email with relevant information, such as a case ID. The scammers then instructed the victim to transfer funds to a Coinbase Wallet while customer support verified their account’s security.

Lack of Reporting

According to ZachXBT, Coinbase has had multiple related security incidents in the past that they’ve failed to address publicly. One prominent example is the case where a scammer laundered $38 million from the BTCTurk hack via Coinbase.

These incidents continue to happen because Coinbase does not report them using popular compliance tools, and its customer support agents don’t provide useful help to victims, ZachXBT said.

“Coinbase needs to urgently make changes as more and more users are being scammed for tens of millions every month,” ZachXBT said in the X post thread. “Coinbase is in a position where they have the power to make these changes and set a good example, but they have chosen to do little to nothing.”