Major Canadian Crypto Exchange Coinsquare Says Client Data Breached

The exchange claimed the breached personal data wasn't likely seen "by the bad actor” and customers' assets are “secure in cold storage and are not at risk.”

AccessTimeIconNov 26, 2022 at 8:53 p.m. UTC
Updated Nov 28, 2022 at 4:38 p.m. UTC
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Coinsquare, one of Canada’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, may have been breached, but the company claims customer assets are “secure in cold storage and are not at risk.”

The exchange, which touts itself as “Canada's trusted platform to securely buy, sell and trade Bitcoin, Ethereum, and more,” emailed customers Friday to report a “data incident” in which an unauthorized third party accessed a customer database containing personal information.

According to the email, the breach exposed “customer names, email addresses, residential addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, device IDs, public wallet addresses, transaction history, and account balances.” Although the email was sent Friday, Coinsquare discovered the breach last week and notified customers via Twitter.

“No passwords were exposed. We have no evidence any of this information was viewed by the bad actor,” the email stated.

Coinsquare suspended activities on its platform after detecting the vulnerability last week, triggering speculation of possible liquidity issues, given the momentous implosion of multi-billion-dollar crypto exchange, FTX, earlier this month. Full service was restored on Friday, according to a tweet.

“We want to reiterate that 100% of client funds are safely held in cold storage and are not used for business activities,” the company tweeted.

CoinDesk reached out to Coinsquare for further comments and the exchange is yet to respond.

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Frederick  Munawa

Frederick Munawa was a Technology Reporter for Coindesk. He covered blockchain protocols with a specific focus on bitcoin and bitcoin-adjacent networks.


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