Coinbase Knew About Data Breach for Months Before Going Public

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Months before Coinbase acknowledged a data leak affecting nearly 70,000 customers, the exchange was allegedly aware of the breach as early as January.

According to a June 3 Reuters report, an employee of outsourcing firm TaskUs had been caught photographing sensitive customer data and selling it to hackers.

Despite being notified immediately, Coinbase only disclosed the incident in a May 14 SEC filing. TaskUs, which handles Coinbase’s customer support, fired over 200 employees in January—though only two were directly linked to the breach.

The incident has since sparked legal action, with a May 27 lawsuit in Manhattan accusing TaskUs of mishandling customer data.