Ari Paul accuses Coinbase of $25M loss and $1B hack cover-up

BlockTower Capital founder Ari Paul has publicly accused Coinbase of misplacing $25 million of his firm's funds while allegedly hiding more than $1 billion in losses from what he described as "massive and repeated hacks."

In a post on X, Paul claimed that at least a dozen companies have been impacted by the purported cover-up, adding that Coinbase "still wouldn’t return our money."

He further stated that he is limited in what he can disclose at this time because of "multiple legal processes still ongoing."

Coinbase “lost” $25m of my firm’s a couple years ago. Turned out they were actually covering up massive and repeated hacks. Still wouldn’t return our money. We traced this to at least a dozen other affected firms and over $1b covered up. That’s all I can say for now as…

— Ari Paul (@AriDavidPaul) September 28, 2026

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BlockTower Capital, co-founded by Paul and former Goldman Sachs executive Matthew Goetz in 2017, operates as an investment firm spanning both crypto and traditional assets.

The company saw two of its top executives depart in 2022 and 2023 for undisclosed reasons, and it also closed its $100 million Market-Neutral Fund in 2023.

Coinbase allegations made against Cobie

Paul's remarks came as a response to a thread of posts by Cobie, a well-known crypto investor who has often served as an unofficial customer support figure for Coinbase.

Cobie had been telling X user “Kuno” that they were ignoring outreach attempts from the exchange.

Kuno, meanwhile, stated that they had repeatedly contacted Coinbase about $1.2 million that was allegedly stolen from them.

Cobie argued that Kuno was shilling a “shitcoin” and that the situation seemed like "an entirely fake/scam report/engagement farm."

As of now, Cobie has not publicly addressed Paul's accusations.

Coinbase sued over $55M draining hack

Back in May, Coinbase was hit with a lawsuit over its refusal to release $55 million in crypto tied to a draining hack that occurred in August 2024.

The alleged victim says he lost his funds after clicking on a malicious link that impersonated the Ethereum DeFi management platform “DefiSaver.”

Coinbase sued for witholding frozen crypto linked to $55M hack

Read more: Coinbase CEO admits content coins were a mistake

From there, he inadvertently granted a smart contract permission that apparently handed control of his wallets to the attackers.

Protos has contacted Coinbase for a response and will update this story if we hear back.