Ari Paul Accuses Coinbase of Losing $25 Million and Covering Up Hacks

Ari Paul, the founder of BlockTower Capital, has made serious allegations against Coinbase, claiming that the exchange lost $25 million of his firm's assets and covered up a series of hacks totaling over $1 billion. Paul asserts that at least a dozen firms have been impacted by these alleged cover-ups, stating, "Coinbase 'lost' $25m of my firm’s a couple years ago. Turned out they were actually covering up massive and repeated hacks. Still wouldn’t return our money." He emphasized that ongoing legal processes prevent him from disclosing further details.

In response to these allegations, Coinbase has denied any wrongdoing, asserting that it is not hiding any hacks and that it did not lose $1 billion. The exchange referred to a support post outlining its security practices, which include advising customers on maintaining their API keys. Coinbase also stated that it does not retain the information necessary to conduct transactions on customer accounts.

Paul's claims come amid a backdrop of previous lawsuits against Coinbase, including one related to a $55 million hack that occurred in August 2024. In that case, a victim alleged that his crypto was stolen after he clicked on a malicious link.

As the situation develops, Coinbase has reached out to Paul for further discussion, indicating a willingness to investigate the claims made against them.

New Insights on Crypto Hacks in 2026

• As of early September 2026, there have been 250 hacking incidents resulting in approximately $1.4 billion in losses.
• By late September 2026, the number of incidents rose to 277, with losses nearing $1.84 billion.
• In comparison, 2025 recorded 148 incidents with losses of about $2.715 billion.
• Q3 2026 has been the worst quarter so far, with over $1.25 billion lost across 116 incidents.
• Notable incidents include a $320 million loss for Liquid Network on September 6 due to a verification flaw, and a $387 million loss for Bitget on September 24, marking the largest single incident of 2026.
• There is a trend of increasing incident counts but decreasing median loss sizes, indicating a fragmentation in the market.
• Since 2020, cumulative losses from crypto hacks have exceeded $21 billion across more than 1,200 incidents.
• Security is becoming a critical competitive factor for protocols, necessitating improvements in key management, employee training, and internal controls.