4 weeks ago
News broke connected May 15 that Coinbase was the people of a $20 cardinal extortion effort aft cybercriminals recruited overseas enactment agents to leak idiosyncratic information for societal engineering scams.
While little than 1% of Coinbase’s progressive monthly users were reportedly affected, the expected remediation and reimbursement expenses scope from $180 cardinal to $400 million, arsenic the speech pledged to repay each phishing onslaught victims.
Despite the onslaught connected the world’s third-largest cryptocurrency exchange, capitalist sentiment remains optimistic, with the Fear & Greed Index remaining firmly successful the “Greed” portion supra 69, according to CoinMarketCap data.
Fear & Greed Index, 30-day chart. Source: CoinMarketCapAdding to capitalist optimism, Coinbase saw implicit $1 cardinal worthy of Bitcoin withdrawn connected May 9, marking the highest nett outflow recorded successful 2025 truthful far, triggering expert predictions of a supply-shock driven Bitcoin rally.
Coinbase faces $400 cardinal measure aft insider phishing attack
Coinbase was deed by a $20 cardinal extortion effort aft cybercriminals recruited overseas enactment agents to leak idiosyncratic data, the institution said connected May 15.
Coinbase said a radical of outer actors bribed and coordinated with respective lawsuit enactment contractors to entree interior systems and bargain constricted idiosyncratic relationship data.
“These insiders abused their entree to lawsuit enactment systems to bargain the relationship information for a tiny subset of customers,” Coinbase said, adding that nary passwords, backstage keys, funds oregon Coinbase Prime accounts were affected.
Less than 1% of Coinbase’s monthly transacting users’ information was affected by the attack, the institution said.
Source: CoinbaseAfter stealing the data, the attackers attempted to extort $20 cardinal worthy of Bitcoin (BTC) from Coinbase successful speech for not disclosing the breach. Coinbase refused the demand.
Instead, the institution offered a $20 cardinal reward for accusation starring to the apprehension and condemnation of those liable for the scheme.
$1 cardinal Bitcoin exits Coinbase successful a time arsenic analysts pass of proviso shock
Institutional request for Bitcoin is growing, arsenic Coinbase, the world’s third-largest cryptocurrency exchange, recorded its highest regular outflows of Bitcoin successful 2025 connected May 9.
On May 9, Coinbase saw 9,739 Bitcoin, worthy much than $1 billion, withdrawn from the exchange, the highest nett outflow recorded successful 2025, according to Bitwise caput of European probe André Dragosch.
“Institutional appetite for Bitcoin is accelerating,” Dragosch added successful a May 13 X post.
Source: André DragoschThe outflow occurred arsenic Bitcoin traded supra $103,600 and conscionable days aft the White House announced a 90-day simplification successful reciprocal tariffs betwixt the US and China, easing marketplace concerns and lifting broader capitalist sentiment.
Joint connection connected US-China gathering successful Geneva. Source: The White HouseThe 90-day suspension of further tariffs removed the hazard of “sudden re-escalation,” which whitethorn help Bitcoin, altcoins and the wider banal marketplace rally owed to improved hazard appetite, Nansen’s main probe analyst, Aurelie Barthere, told Cointelegraph.
DeFi lender Aave reaches $40 cardinal successful worth locked onchain
Aave, a decentralized concern (DeFi) protocol, has reached a caller grounds of funds onchain, according to information from DefiLlama.
In an X post, Aave said it topped $40.3 cardinal successful full worth locked (TVL) connected May 12. Onchain information reveals that Aave v3, the latest mentation of the protocol, has astir $40 cardinal successful TVL.
Aave is simply a DeFi lending protocol that lets users get cryptocurrency by depositing different types of cryptocurrency arsenic collateral. Meanwhile, lenders gain output from borrowers.
“With these milestones, Aave is proving its dominance successful the Lending Space,” DeFi expert Jonaso said successful a May 12 X post. TVL represents the full worth of cryptocurrency deposited into a protocol’s astute contracts.
Aave v3’s TVL implicit time. Source: DefiLlamaSEC delays Solana ETF arsenic decisions for Polkadot, XRP loom
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) pushed backmost its determination connected a projected spot Solana exchange-traded money (ETF), with the cryptocurrency manufacture present looking to the deadlines for the Polkadot and XRP-based ETFs successful June.
The SEC delayed its determination connected listing Grayscale’s spot Solana (SOL) Trust ETF connected the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) to October 2025, according to a May 13 filing by the securities regulator.
Delay connected Grayscale’s Solana ETF. Source: SECThe determination came the week aft the SEC delayed its ruling connected Canary Capital’s Litecoin (LTC) ETF, Bloomberg Intelligence expert James Seyffart wrote successful a May 5 X post.
Source: James SeyffartSpot ETFs are cardinal drivers of liquidity and organization adoption for integer assets. For Bitcoin, the US spot Bitcoin ETFs accounted for an estimated 75% of caller investment aft launching, which helped BTC recapture the $50,000 people successful February 2024, a period aft the ETFs debuted for trading.
While a Solana ETF may make lone a fraction of the inflows of Bitcoin ETFs, it could summation Solana’s organization adoption successful the agelong word by offering investors a “regulated concern vehicle” that whitethorn inactive pull billions of dollars successful capital, Ryan Lee, main expert astatine Bitget Research, told Cointelegraph.
Starknet hits “Stage 1” decentralization, tops ZK-rollups for worth locked
Ethereum layer-2 scaling level Starknet has reached a decentralization milestone laid retired by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and is present the largest zero-knowledge rollup-based web by full worth locked.
Starknet said successful a quality merchandise shared with Cointelegraph that it has deed “Stage 1” decentralization, according to a framework Buterin laid retired successful 2022, which means the web operates with constricted oversight oregon “training wheels.”
Starknet added that the model was the “gold modular onchain instrumentality for analyzing Ethereum scaling solutions,” and said it achieved the milestone done changes specified arsenic creating a information assembly and censorship-avoidance mechanisms.
While the strategy inactive allows involution from a information council, it has implemented a afloat functional validity impervious strategy governed by astute contracts.
Starknet is present the lone layer-2 ZK-rollup web to person reached Stage 1 and has grown to beryllium the largest ZK-rollup blockchain with a full worth locked of $629 million, conscionable up of ZKsync’s $610 million, according to L2beat.
Starknet is the fifth-largest layer-2 network by worth locked, with the apical 4 each Optimistic rollup-based, having reached Stage 1 decentralization utilizing fraud proofs.
DeFi marketplace overview
According to information from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView, astir of the 100 largest cryptocurrencies by marketplace capitalization ended the week successful the green.
Solana-based memecoin Dogwifhat (WIF) roseate implicit 43% arsenic the week’s biggest gainer, followed by decentralized speech Raydium’s (RAY) token, up astir 19% implicit the past week.
Total worth locked successful DeFi. Source: DefiLlamaThanks for speechmaking our summary of this week’s astir impactful DeFi developments. Join america adjacent Friday for much stories, insights and acquisition regarding this dynamically advancing space.
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