An anonymous Puerto Rico-based crypto whale sued Coinbase this week, accusing the cryptocurrency exchange of failing to release funds stolen from the user in a 2024 hack.
Although key details of the lawsuit are redacted, the information contained in the filing about the hack closely resembles a massive exploit in August 2024 in which a single crypto user lost more than $55 million worth of an Ethereum stablecoin. DAIafter falling for a phishing scam.
The lawsuit, filed Monday in federal court in San Francisco, claims that after the hack, the whale hired several on-chain research companies to track down the crypto. Ultimately, the lawsuit alleges, detectives traced the stolen funds to a Coinbase account, and in early December 2024, the crypto exchange confirmed that it had identified the funds, which would be frozen pending an investigation.
However, the crypto whale now claims that, a year and a half later, they still have not received their cryptocurrency and that Coinbase has said it will not return the funds until a court order forces it to do so.
Coinbase did not immediately respond to DecipherRequest for comments.
$55M DAI Hack in 2024 First Identified by Pseudonymous On-Chain Crypto Detective ZachXBT. The hackers used a platform called “Inferno Drainer” to create a fake login page for DeFi Saver, a crypto management tool used by the victim.
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The victim, thinking he was logging into the site, inadvertently handed control of his wallet to the hackers, who immediately sent the DAI to other crypto wallets and began laundering the funds with coin mixing services.
In the lawsuit filed against Coinbase this week, the plaintiff said they had not realized that the fake login page, which should have been DefiSaver.com, ended in “.app.”