Coinbase Breach: TaskUs Agent Caught Leaking Data for Cash

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Coinbase Breach: TaskUs Agent Caught Leaking Data for Cash

Written by Aaron S.,

Editor-In-Chief

Last Updated: June 03, 2025

Key Takeaways

Coinbase learned of a TaskUs data leak in January but did not disclose it until May 14;
Two TaskUs employees were blamed for leaking info from 70,000 Coinbase users to hackers;
Hackers demanded $20 million in Bitcoin to stay quiet, but Coinbase rejected the ransom demand.

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Coinbase Breach: TaskUs Agent Caught Leaking Data for Cash

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Coinbase $1.26B became aware in January that user information had been leaked by one of its support contractors but did not share the news until May, according to a June 2 report by Reuters.

The leak was traced to a support agent working for TaskUs, a company that handles customer service for Coinbase.

In January, TaskUs laid off over 200 employees from its India office, which led to protests. However, only two people were directly blamed for the leak, which affected nearly 70,000 Coinbase users, less than 1% of the platform’s total customers.

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The employee had been taking photos of her work screen with her personal phone. She and another person were suspected of passing the images to hackers in exchange for money.

Five former TaskUs employees told Reuters that Coinbase was informed right away. The leaked data included names, addresses, masked bank details, and ID documents. No passwords or money were taken.

On May 11, someone demanded $20 million in Bitcoin BTC $104,698.53 from Coinbase to keep the information private.

Coinbase disclosed the breach publicly on May 14 in a regulatory filing, followed by a blog post the next day. The company said hackers had bribed several contractors and staff to get access to customer records.

CEO Brian Armstrong also confirmed on May 15 that Coinbase had rejected the ransom demand. Furthermore, the exchange confirmed it had cut ties with both the workers involved and other overseas agents connected to the case.

On May 21, the hacker linked to the Coinbase user data breach reappeared with new blockchain activity. What did they do? Read the full story.