Sequoia Capital Partner’s Data Hacked as Part of Coinbase Breach

(Bloomberg) -- Sequoia Capital Managing Partner Roelof Botha was among the Coinbase Global Inc. customers whose personal information was stolen as part of a hack against the largest US crypto exchange, a person familiar with the situation said, signaling that high-profile executives were among the targets of the breach.

Personal information about Botha, including his phone number, address and other details associated with his Coinbase account, were stolen, the person said, asking not to be identified discussing private matters.

Coinbase on Thursday revealed that attackers had bribed customer service representatives in India with cash in exchange for access to client data. Bloomberg News reported that information including names, dates of birth, addresses, nationalities, government ID numbers, some banking data and details about when accounts were created and their balance were exposed.

The thieves then demanded $20 million from Coinbase in exchange for covering up the incident, an extortion demand the company refused to pay, it said. Coinbase began noticing unusual activity from some customer service representatives as far back as January, the company confirmed in an interview with Bloomberg.

That the attackers gathered information about Botha, which has not been previously reported, hints at the type of wealthy and powerful targets that the outsiders were looking to compromise. Botha is a member of the so-called PayPal Mafia, an influential group of former PayPal employees that includes Peter Thiel and Elon Musk. He joined Sequoia, one of the world’s foremost venture firms, in 2003, placing early bets on companies like YouTube and Instagram. He became the firm’s leader, taking the title of senior steward, in 2022.

Coinbase declined to comment on the matter. Botha didn’t respond to a request for comment. Sequoia Capital also declined to comment. 

Some customers last weekend received alerts from Coinbase suggesting that their information had been improperly accessed, according to the person familiar with the matter.

The safety of crypto executives has become a topic of concern as the sector has become more visible. 

France’s interior ministry assembled a group of executives on Friday to explain immediate steps the country is taking to end a wave of kidnappings that’s targeted industry leaders. Those measures will include special checkups at the homes of crypto executives and specific briefings to them and their families. 

The meeting comes after the daughter and grandson of chief executive officer of Paymium, a virtual currency exchange, were the targets of a failed kidnapping that took place in broad daylight in Paris. Before that, the father of another man made rich from cryptocurrency was taken, then freed two days later.

Hackers have targeted the cryptocurrency industry for years. Suspected North Korean attackers exploited the crypto exchange Bybit in February, causing a $1.5 billion incident that security researchers described as a bigger incident than any that came before it.

--With assistance from Teresa Xie.

(Updated to include additional context in final paragraph. A prior version of this story misspelled Sequoia in the headline.)

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