New Coinbase Report: Exchange Prevented Sending BTC To Twitter Hackers

A new Coinbase report shows that the crypto exchange prevented the users from sending $285K in BTC to the Twitter hackers so let’s find out more in the latest Coinbase news today.

The data shows that the impacts from the recent Twitter hack were quite limited with a small handful of users sending more than $100,000 worth of Bitcoin to the addresses that were a part of the classic crypto/bitcoin giveaway scam. According to the new Coinbase report, the cryptocurrency exchange stopped more than 1,100 customers from sending BTC to the hackers and that the effects could have been even greater than this.

The world was shocked last week when they witnessed some high-profile Twitter accounts getting hacked and offering fake Bitcoin giveaways. The hackers used these accounts to shill the crypto scams in which they told the account’s followers that they will send double the amount that it was sent. Despite the scam being played out in front of millions of people, the impacts were fairly limited.

A report from Elliptic on the other hand shows that about $121,000 worth of BTC was sent in more than 400 payments. This means that it was far less than 400 people that sent crypto and some of the individuals have sent multiple transactions. One user even sent out $42,000 worth of Bitcoin in a single transaction from a Japanese-based exchange. Elliptic noted:

“Payments from Asia-based exchanges dominate, although this includes one single very large payment originating from a Japan-based exchange, worth $42,000.”

According to the recent report, Coinbase became apprised of the situation and they started blocking transactions from their exchange to the hacker’s wallet. They claimed to have blocked 1100 customers from sending 30.4 Bitcoin to the address associated with the crypto scam. Right before they blacklisted the address, 14 of the users were able to send more than $3000 worth of BTC. The actions taken by the exchange prove to be quite beneficial for users but also outlines the control that the platform has over the clients’ funds.

Some BTC advocates are now getting concerned that most of the exchanges can start censoring transactions which negate the entire philosophy around Bitcoin. While speaking to Forbes, the chief information officer Philip Martin explained that they are operating on the principle of trying to lower down the harm to users without having to reduce the asset’s utility:

 “The principle that we want to pay attention to is harm reduction without reducing the underlying utility of the asset.”