Coinbase Accounts Hacked As Bitcoin Hovers Near $ 50,000

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Decrypt Editor-in-Chief Dan Roberts joins the Yahoo Finance Live panel to discuss the latest crypto moves.

Video transcript

– So the other day we saw Bitcoin go over $ 50,000. Right now it is trading around $ 48,000. Not far from where he had been. Let’s bring Dan Roberts back. He’s the editor of Decrypt, and he’s going to help us understand what’s driving all of this action when it comes to at least Bitcoin. And then we have to hit the NFTs, but what’s up with Bitcoin?

DAN ROBERTS: Well, hey, guys. It’s good to be back with you. You know, first of all, this little rally that we saw that brought it down to $ 50,000, I would say in the media we always want to link Bitcoin price action directly to the news. And there’s kind of a tendency to think, well, what’s the one event that’s happened that has pushed Bitcoin higher?

This is usually not the case. It’s a bit misleading. And in fact, there has been some disturbing news in the Bitcoin space recently. You know, the crypto folks didn’t like what happened with this Senate infrastructure bill, without changing the language it applies to crypto brokers. Having said that, there have been a few positive steps that I would like to highlight.

The number of active Bitcoin wallets has really increased, which shows that there are more purchases and people actively trading. And then, of course, the excitement over Gary Gensler’s recent comments about opening a Bitcoin futures ETF. It’s different from a Bitcoin ETF. This has caused an increase in the number of bets you see on Bitcoin futures contracts.

And finally, we recently talked about the crackdown on Bitcoin mining that we have seen in China. Now we are seeing data that suggests there has been an advantage, which is that mining has become more profitable because it is less competitive. So Bitcoin miners, of course, outside of China are seeing Bitcoin mining revenues increase.

Thus, $ 50,000 was an important step to take, the first time in more than three months. It was Sunday. And now we see it come down a little bit. It always happens like that. $ 50,000 is sort of the new price milestone, the resistance level.

The story continues

– Dan, you know what’s also interesting, because we released this report from CNBC on Coinbase. The fact that some people have difficulty accessing their money, even though there was a family, I believe, who lost close to $ 170,000. They can’t find it.

When we get news like this, just in terms of people having issues accessing their cryptocurrency, I guess how much of a challenge or how important it could be to Main Street adoption at this. topic ?

DAN ROBERTS: Well, there are two questions, aren’t there? I mean, when it comes to Coinbase, customer service issues are nothing new. It’s not hard to find sources to comment on a story about bad customer experiences with Coinbase. And believe it or not, the company somehow knows it and has so far made the decision not to really prioritize it. I mean, it says it fixes it.

But look, it comes at a high cost. And I think for the most part, they think the shortcomings in their customer service haven’t really cost them customers. And then, of course, when it comes to hacking, a lot of those people you read that got hacked, it’s either because they clicked on a phishing link or because someone put hand over their SIM card by calling their phone company, and Coinbase gets to say, well, that’s not our problem. We did not cause this security breach.

So there is all that. But in a broader sense, you are correct. And I talk about it a lot. I still think there is a lot of friction in the crypto space. You know, for the average person, trusting Coinbase or a centralized exchange is enough. I will buy some crypto and let the website keep it for me.

But crypto purists would tell you that the right thing to do is buy crypto and move it from the exchange to a hardware wallet that you hold the keys to. Of course, the risk exists, better not to lose your private keys, your password to access your crypto, because that’s it.

– We know the story of this individual who would be worth millions, but who cannot find his key. Very quickly, Dan. With blockchain, however. You can trace what happened – this CNBC report focuses on one family. The hackers may have sold it and they took the money. But can’t you trace what happened to the actual coins or coin derivatives they owned and then at least have a way to get them back?

DAN ROBERTS: What you can see on the public Bitcoin blockchain, Adam, is wallet to wallet. So you can see that funds have been sent from this wallet to this wallet. And people still think Bitcoin is obscure and anonymous, that’s really not correct. It’s semi-anonymous.

Now the wallet doesn’t say it, Adam Shapiro’s wallet sent Dan Roberts $ 200 in Bitcoin. Having said that, A24X322% _ sent Bitcoin to this other wallet. So it’s a bit traceable. And in fact, there have been examples where authorities have been able to trace Bitcoin using the blockchain.

But not always, and generally it is not that easy. You cannot see an exact name and physical mailing address associated with wallet addresses on the blockchain.

– Dan, let’s talk about the NFT craze. It’s something that has really taken over, I guess, for quite some time now. But news this weekend, VISA is entering the NFT space. Also Justin Sun buying an NFT stone for over half a million dollars. What do you think of that, and I guess what does that signal about the potential for growth in this space?

DAN ROBERTS: Well, that’s also fascinating, isn’t it? Because we were talking about NFTs in March and April, when there is a frenzy. And then in June, the sales volume dropped sharply and everyone declared the death of NFTs. Numerous media have published reports that NFTs are dead now. Well, they’re back. They came back from the dead. Maybe they weren’t dead.

And they’re almost hotter than before. I mean, yesterday was the biggest selling volume ever for some of the hottest NFT collections like Crypto Punks and Bored Apes. And these things are everywhere, right? I mean, you mentioned the aether rocks. We have literally taken the concept of pet rocks and put it digitally on the blockchain.

Now to anyone who thinks this is all stupid, I understand that. I think there are some people who just can’t get a handle on the digital ownership of a digital art file that everyone can also see without owning it.

But the clue is, you know, with any other art, even if you didn’t own it, you could see and see and share a photo of it. And the people who own these NFTs, in many cases now, are really pumping the community. It’s not just about buying and owning something and returning it, it’s about the community.

So a good example is Bored Apes. These are these unique collections of pretty cool cartoon monkeys. Each is unique. But once you own one, you also get a number of other related perks and privileges. And I think that’s really the part to focus on to understand this next boom, is that it’s about belonging to a club.

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