A Coinbase user was seemingly scammed for 400 BTC

A prominent on‑chain investigator has reported that a Coinbase customer appears to have been defrauded of 400 BTC—around $33–35 million at recent prices—through a sophisticated scam, with the funds rapidly moved across chains and converted into stablecoins. The case was surfaced by blockchain sleuth ZachXBT, who highlighted it publicly and linked it to a broader pattern of recent, large-scale thefts targeting Coinbase users. According to Cybernews and related coverage, ZachXBT identified an address that received 400 BTC from what he believes is a Coinbase user and then emptied that balance by March 27, 2025. He reported that this theft was likely part of a series of similar incidents in March, in which several other Coinbase users allegedly lost 60.16 BTC, 46.15 BTC, and 20 BTC, bringing the suspected total to more than 526 BTC (over $44 million) in that month alone. Funds from these thefts were reportedly bridged from Bitcoin to Ethereum using THORChain and Chainflip, then swapped for the stablecoin DAI, making recovery more difficult. Separate reporting on the same 400 BTC incident characterizes it as a phishing or address poisoning scam, where the victim is tricked into sending funds to a fraudulent address that closely resembles a legitimate one. ZachXBT has criticized Coinbase for allegedly failing to flag the suspected scammer addresses in common compliance and risk-monitoring tools, which he argues could have helped prevent or at least limit the losses. As of the latest reports, Coinbase had not issued a detailed public statement specifically about this 400 BTC case, although prior investigations by ZachXBT and collaborators have claimed that Coinbase users collectively lose hundreds of millions of dollars per year to social‑engineering scams. The episode underscores ongoing concerns about user protection on major cryptocurrency exchanges, the challenges of detecting and blocking sophisticated wallet‑level scams, and the importance of robust security practices—such as address allowlists, careful address verification, and heightened vigilance around unsolicited messages—for individuals handling large crypto balances. "entities":["Coinbase","ZachXBT","THORChain","Chainflip","DAI","Bitcoin (BTC)","Cybernews"]}`

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More coverage

• Coinbase Hit By $400m Crypto Scam | Silicon UK Tech News (silicon.co.uk)
• Coinbase user may have lost 400 BTC to scammers - Cybernews (cybernews.com)
• Coinbase User Loses $35M in Bitcoin to Sophisticated Phishing Scam (openexo.com)