Coinbase says customer contact data leaked via vendor Amplitude

Coinbase said on Oct. 28 that its own systems were not breached: contact details of some customers were exposed through a security incident at third-party analytics provider Amplitude. The exchange says customer funds and assets are safe. Coinbase describes the affected group as a small subset of users, while security firm SlowMist puts it at over 70,000.

Details

According to Crypto Briefing, The Defiant and Phemex, the incident at Amplitude took place on Oct. 27⁠–⁠28. Only contact data was exposed: email addresses and phone numbers. Coinbase says passwords and transaction histories were not compromised.

Coinbase says it found no evidence of unauthorized access to its internal systems. It is emailing affected customers and reporting the incident to regulators. The news first surfaced in the unfolded feed; we could not locate a Coinbase statement on its own site, so the figures and wording here rely on media accounts.

Estimates of scale differ: Coinbase points to a small share of customers, SlowMist to more than 70,000. It is not yet clear which figure is closer.

What it means for the market

Leaked contact details do not give access to accounts, but they raise the risk of phishing and impersonation, with scammers posing as the exchange. Coinbase warns users to watch for phishing and social-engineering attempts.

The episode is another reminder of third-party vendor risk: the company itself was not hacked, yet customer data still ended up outside. For the live bitcoin price see the daily brief, and the Bitcoin page for the coin.