The hacker responsible for the Coinbase data breach has directly mocked prominent blockchain investigator ZachXBT through an on-chain message following a major cryptocurrency swap.
The attacker wrote “L bozo,” along with a meme video of NBA player James Worthy smoking a cigar, on May 21 using Ethereum transaction input data.
The threatening message followed the hacker’s exchange of about $42.5 million of Bitcoin for Ethereum through the THORChain cross-chain platform. This show of disrespect for one of the most renowned investigators in the crypto community demonstrates the brazenness of cybercriminals in the industry.
ZachXBT flagged the provocative message on his Telegram channel and confirmed the connection to the same entity behind the Coinbase data breach that compromised personal information of at least 69,400 users.
On May 22, according to blockchain security company PeckShield, the hacker exchanged 8,697 ETH for 22 million DAI stablecoin and proceeded to transfer the stolen money.
The first user data breach at Coinbase happened in December 2024, but went unnoticed until May 11, according to a filing with the Maine Attorney General’s office. The data breach information also includes names, home addresses, and other sensitive personal data of the affected users.
When making public the hack, the hackers said they would release the stolen information for a Bitcoin ransom of $20 million. Coinbase was not a victim of this blackmail but instead put out a $20 million reward for any information that would lead to the hackers’ identification.
The breach estimates potential financial impact of between $180 million and $400 million in the form of remediation fees, customer refunds, and other breach-related charges. The figure highlights the serious financial impact in addition to the immediate data theft.
