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Information broke on Might 15 that Coinbase was the goal of a $20 million extortion try after cybercriminals recruited abroad assist brokers to leak consumer knowledge for social engineering scams.
Whereas lower than 1% of Coinbase’s energetic month-to-month customers have been reportedly affected, the anticipated remediation and reimbursement bills vary from $180 million to $400 million, because the trade pledged to repay all phishing assault victims.
Regardless of the assault on the world’s third-largest cryptocurrency trade, investor sentiment stays optimistic, with the Concern & Greed Index remaining firmly within the “Greed” zone above 69, in accordance with CoinMarketCap data.
Including to investor optimism, Coinbase noticed over $1 billion value of Bitcoin withdrawn on Might 9, marking the best web outflow recorded in 2025 up to now, triggering analyst predictions of a supply-shock pushed Bitcoin rally.
Coinbase faces $400 million invoice after insider phishing assault
Coinbase was hit by a $20 million extortion try after cybercriminals recruited abroad assist brokers to leak consumer knowledge, the corporate stated on Might 15.
Coinbase stated a gaggle of exterior actors bribed and coordinated with a number of buyer assist contractors to entry inner programs and steal restricted consumer account knowledge.
“These insiders abused their entry to buyer assist programs to steal the account knowledge for a small subset of consumers,” Coinbase stated, including that no passwords, non-public keys, funds or Coinbase Prime accounts have been affected.
Lower than 1% of Coinbase’s month-to-month transacting customers’ knowledge was affected by the assault, the corporate stated.
After stealing the information, the attackers tried to extort $20 million value of Bitcoin (BTC) from Coinbase in trade for not disclosing the breach. Coinbase refused the demand.
As a substitute, the corporate supplied a $20 million reward for data resulting in the arrest and conviction of these accountable for the scheme.
$1 billion Bitcoin exits Coinbase in a day as analysts warn of provide shock
Institutional demand for Bitcoin is rising, as Coinbase, the world’s third-largest cryptocurrency trade, recorded its highest every day outflows of Bitcoin in 2025 on Might 9.
On Might 9, Coinbase noticed 9,739 Bitcoin, value greater than $1 billion, withdrawn from the trade, the best web outflow recorded in 2025, in accordance with Bitwise head of European analysis André Dragosch.
“Institutional urge for food for Bitcoin is accelerating,” Dragosch added in a Might 13 X post.
The outflow occurred as Bitcoin traded above $103,600 and simply days after the White Home introduced a 90-day discount in reciprocal tariffs between the US and China, easing market considerations and lifting broader investor sentiment.
The 90-day suspension of further tariffs eliminated the danger of “sudden re-escalation,” which can help Bitcoin, altcoins and the broader inventory market rally as a consequence of improved danger urge for food, Nansen’s principal analysis analyst, Aurelie Barthere, informed Cointelegraph.
DeFi lender Aave reaches $40 billion in worth locked onchain
Aave, a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol, has reached a brand new file of funds onchain, in accordance with knowledge from DefiLlama.
In an X post, Aave stated it topped $40.3 billion in complete worth locked (TVL) on Might 12. Onchain knowledge reveals that Aave v3, the most recent model of the protocol, has about $40 billion in TVL.
Aave is a DeFi lending protocol that lets customers borrow cryptocurrency by depositing different varieties of cryptocurrency as collateral. In the meantime, lenders earn yield from debtors.
“With these milestones, Aave is proving its dominance within the Lending House,” DeFi analyst Jonaso stated in a Might 12 X post. TVL represents the whole worth of cryptocurrency deposited right into a protocol’s sensible contracts.
SEC delays Solana ETF as selections for Polkadot, XRP loom
The US Securities and Change Fee (SEC) pushed again its resolution on a proposed spot Solana exchange-traded fund (ETF), with the cryptocurrency business now trying to the deadlines for the Polkadot and XRP-based ETFs in June.
The SEC delayed its resolution on itemizing Grayscale’s spot Solana (SOL) Belief ETF on the New York Inventory Change (NYSE) to October 2025, in accordance with a Might 13 filing by the securities regulator.
The choice got here the week after the SEC delayed its ruling on Canary Capital’s Litecoin (LTC) ETF, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst James Seyffart wrote in a Might 5 X post.
Spot ETFs are key drivers of liquidity and institutional adoption for digital property. For Bitcoin, the US spot Bitcoin ETFs accounted for an estimated 75% of new investment after launching, which helped BTC recapture the $50,000 mark in February 2024, a month after the ETFs debuted for buying and selling.
Whereas a Solana ETF may generate solely a fraction of the inflows of Bitcoin ETFs, it might enhance Solana’s institutional adoption in the long run by providing traders a “regulated funding car” which will nonetheless entice billions of {dollars} in capital, Ryan Lee, chief analyst at Bitget Analysis, informed Cointelegraph.
Starknet hits “Stage 1” decentralization, tops ZK-rollups for worth locked
Ethereum layer-2 scaling platform Starknet has reached a decentralization milestone laid out by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and is now the most important zero-knowledge rollup-based community by complete worth locked.
Starknet stated in a information launch shared with Cointelegraph that it has hit “Stage 1” decentralization, in accordance to a framework Buterin specified by 2022, which suggests the community operates with restricted oversight or “coaching wheels.”
Starknet added that the framework was the “gold commonplace onchain device for analyzing Ethereum scaling options,” and stated it achieved the milestone via modifications equivalent to making a safety council and censorship-avoidance mechanisms.
Whereas the system nonetheless permits intervention from a safety council, it has applied a totally practical validity proof system ruled by sensible contracts.
Starknet is now the one layer-2 ZK-rollup community to have reached Stage 1 and has grown to be the most important ZK-rollup blockchain with a complete worth locked of $629 million, simply forward of ZKsync’s $610 million, according to L2beat.
Starknet is the fifth-largest layer-2 network by worth locked, with the highest 4 all Optimistic rollup-based, having reached Stage 1 decentralization utilizing fraud proofs.
DeFi market overview
In keeping with knowledge from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView, many of the 100 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization ended the week within the inexperienced.
Solana-based memecoin Dogwifhat (WIF) rose over 43% because the week’s largest gainer, adopted by decentralized trade Raydium’s (RAY) token, up almost 19% over the previous week.
Thanks for studying our abstract of this week’s most impactful DeFi developments. Be part of us subsequent Friday for extra tales, insights and schooling concerning this dynamically advancing area.