An Artist Lost a $2 Million Crypto Nest Egg in Coinbase’s Hack
After spending nearly two decades as a fabricator in the art world, helping construct elaborate creations like Jeff Koons’ series of Balloon Dog sculptures, Ed Suman decided to try his hand at something new: cryptocurrency investing.
Suman started buying in 2017, eventually amassing a nest egg that included 17.5 Bitcoin and 225 Ether, tokens worth more than $2 million these days. The stash represented a significant portion of his retirement savings.
Then earlier this year, he lost it all.
Suman was one of the victims scammed by a person posing as a customer-support representative for Coinbase, the largest US crypto exchange. Coinbase Global Inc. disclosed on Thursday that cyber criminals had gained access to customer data starting in January. They harvested users’ names, addresses, account balances and transaction histories, among other details, by bribing the company’s customer support agents in India.
