Coinbase Data Breach Leads to Support Agent’s Arrest in India

A former customer service agent at Coinbase was arrested in India after authorities alleged that the individual assisted hackers in accessing sensitive customer information through a data breach, reports Bill Toulas for BleepingComputer.

In a Dec. 26 post on X, Coinbase Chief Executive Brian Armstrong wrote that the company has zero tolerance for bad behavior and it is working with law enforcement to bring bad actors to justice. Armstrong also said more arrests are “to come.”

The arrest coincides with increasing criminal investigations tied to data misuse within cryptocurrency platforms. Private companies and international law enforcement are cooperating when breaches involve financial and identity data.

Coinbase operates one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the United States, offering trading and digital wallet services to users worldwide at substantial transaction volumes.

In May 2025, the company disclosed that compromised customer support access had enabled hackers to extract data from an internal database and attempt to extort the company by demanding a $20 million payment to prevent public disclosure.

Subsequent disclosures clarified the scale of the incident, identifying approximately 69,500 affected customers and detailing the categories of exposed information, including partial Social Security numbers, contact details, and, in some cases, scanned verification documents used in identity checks.

Coinbase later reported that the breach originated through TaskUs, an India-based outsourcing firm. The vendor terminated two employees, and closed an entire support unit of 226 staff.

Beyond civil exposure and regulatory scrutiny, the events intersect with parallel criminal proceedings involving cryptocurrency fraud. Federal prosecutors recently charged a New York-based individual accused of impersonating Coinbase to divert digital assets from victims, a scheme that generated $16 million with limited recovery.

Coinbase has stated that blockchain transparency allows investigators to trace illicit transfers when exchanges and authorities collaborate, a position likely to influence future breach response strategies and evidentiary approaches.

Attorneys will note that these matters raise questions about vendor oversight, employee access controls, cross-border investigations, and disclosure obligations.