$300 Million Coinbase Hacker Makes Sudden Comeback Into Ethereum (ETH)

The hacker who breached Coinbase user data, causing over $300 million in losses, is back at it, this time making a big bet on Ethereum (ETH). According to Lookonchain, the wallet marked “Coinbase hacker” got 649.62 ETH for about $2.31 million in just nine hours at a price of $3,561.

This is the second major ETH purchase in July, and it comes at a time when ETH has broken above the $3,700 mark for the first time this year.

Earlier this month, the same wallet bought 4,863 ETH equivalent to $12.55 million at $2,581, which is a strong push back into crypto after previously offloading 26,762 ETH in May for $69.25 million at around $2,588.

The pattern suggests the attacker is now moving into Ethereum with increasing aggression as the price trend flips bullish - ETH has gained over 40% in the past month and just had its highest daily close since early 2022.

The wallet activity has been closely tracked by on-chain sleuths, with most purchases routed through the CoW Protocol to minimize slippage and visibility.

Coinbase hack

The money came from one of Coinbase’s biggest security blunders. Back in May, it came to light that hackers had gotten their hands on some sensitive customer data by bribing overseas call center contractors.

The attackers never got access to passwords or crypto balances, but the breach still impacted a small percentage of users and led to tens of millions in investigation and remediation costs. Coinbase publicly refused to negotiate with the attackers, instead committing to full reimbursements for affected users.

With ETH now over $3,700 and the attacker’s reentry price averaging near $2,600, the wallet is sitting on millions in unrealized gains - and appears far from done accumulating.