{"id":7760,"date":"2025-05-16T21:43:28","date_gmt":"2025-05-16T13:43:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/goutanddesign.com\/wpress\/?p=7760"},"modified":"2025-05-16T21:43:28","modified_gmt":"2025-05-16T13:43:28","slug":"coinbase-faces-sec-heat-over-user-count-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/goutanddesign.com\/wpress\/2025\/05\/coinbase-faces-sec-heat-over-user-count-claims\/","title":{"rendered":"Coinbase Faces SEC Heat Over User Count Claims"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading Time : <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Coinbase is under fresh scrutiny as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigates whether the crypto exchange inflated its verified user numbers. At the heart of the probe is whether Coinbase\u2019s earlier metric included anyone who just verified an email or phone number, making it potentially misleading. This figure was prominently featured in the company\u2019s filings ahead of its 2021 IPO.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-7761\" src=\"https:\/\/goutanddesign.com\/wpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/z2-4.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"599\" srcset=\"https:\/\/goutanddesign.com\/wpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/z2-4.webp 1000w, https:\/\/goutanddesign.com\/wpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/z2-4-300x180.webp 300w, https:\/\/goutanddesign.com\/wpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/z2-4-768x460.webp 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The SEC\u2019s interest highlights ongoing tensions between regulators and crypto platforms over transparency and accurate reporting. Although Coinbase no longer uses the \u201cverified user\u201d metric and focuses instead on active monthly users, this retrospective examination could have serious consequences, especially given the company\u2019s public listing and past investor communications.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-7762\" src=\"https:\/\/goutanddesign.com\/wpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/z4-16.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"571\" srcset=\"https:\/\/goutanddesign.com\/wpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/z4-16.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/goutanddesign.com\/wpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/z4-16-300x171.jpg 300w, https:\/\/goutanddesign.com\/wpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/z4-16-768x439.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Complicating matters, Coinbase recently disclosed a troubling data breach. Hackers allegedly bribed some support staff to access personal data from nearly 100,000 users. The attackers demanded $20 million in ransom, which Coinbase refused to pay. The company says it\u2019s cooperating with law enforcement and tightening internal security protocols.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-7765\" src=\"https:\/\/goutanddesign.com\/wpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/z3-4.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"1000\" srcset=\"https:\/\/goutanddesign.com\/wpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/z3-4.png 1000w, https:\/\/goutanddesign.com\/wpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/z3-4-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/goutanddesign.com\/wpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/z3-4-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/goutanddesign.com\/wpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/z3-4-768x768.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">These issues have shaken investor confidence, with Coinbase shares falling over 7% after the announcements. Still, the crypto sector remains resilient. Despite regulatory and security concerns, major digital assets have continued to gain in value, reflecting ongoing optimism in the market\u2019s long-term prospects.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5125\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5125\" style=\"width: 1000px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5125\" src=\"https:\/\/goutanddesign.com\/wpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Ben-footer-mar2024-1000.png\" alt=\"B\u00e9n\u00e9dicte Lin \u2013 Brussels, Paris, London, Seoul, Bangkok, Tokyo, New York, Taipei, Hong Kong\" width=\"1000\" height=\"379\" srcset=\"https:\/\/goutanddesign.com\/wpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Ben-footer-mar2024-1000.png 1000w, https:\/\/goutanddesign.com\/wpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Ben-footer-mar2024-1000-300x114.png 300w, https:\/\/goutanddesign.com\/wpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Ben-footer-mar2024-1000-768x291.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5125\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">B\u00e9n\u00e9dicte Lin \u2013 Brussels, Paris, London, Seoul, Bangkok, Tokyo, New York, Taipei, Hong Kong<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>#Coinbase #SEC #Cryptocurrency #DataBreach #Blockchain #CryptoNews #Finance<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading Time : <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span> Coinbase is being investigated by the SEC over claims it exaggerated user numbers. At the same time, the company faces backlash from a major data breach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7763,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,374,194,67],"tags":[397,19,218,27,480,219,165,4,94],"class_list":["post-7760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-branding","category-economy","category-finance","category-wealthytalks","tag-397","tag-benedicte","tag-bitcoin","tag-branding","tag-coinbase","tag-crypto-currency","tag-finance","tag-gout-design","tag-money"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/goutanddesign.com\/wpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/goutanddesign.com\/wpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/goutanddesign.com\/wpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goutanddesign.com\/wpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goutanddesign.com\/wpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7760"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/goutanddesign.com\/wpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7760\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7766,"href":"https:\/\/goutanddesign.com\/wpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7760\/revisions\/7766"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goutanddesign.com\/wpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/goutanddesign.com\/wpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goutanddesign.com\/wpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goutanddesign.com\/wpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}