(Bloomberg) – Roelof Botha, a managing partner at Sequoia Capital, is one of Coinbase Global Inc. whose personal information was stolen as part of a hacker targeting the largest U.S. cryptocurrency exchange in the U.S., said people familiar with the situation.
The person said personal information about Botha, including his phone number, address and other details related to his Coinbase account, was stolen and asked to be unwilling to identify and discuss private matters.
Coinbase revealed on Thursday that the attackers bribed Indian customer service representatives with cash in exchange for access to customer data. Bloomberg News reports, including name, date of birth, address, nationality, government ID number, some bank data and information about when an account is created and its balance is exposed.
The thief then asked Coinbase for $20 million in exchange for the incident, and the company refused to pay. The company confirmed in an interview with Bloomberg that Coinbase began to notice unusual activity by some customer service representatives.
The attackers gathered information about Bota (not previously reported), suggesting affluent and powerful target that outsiders hope to compromise. Botha is a member of the so-called Paypal Mafia, an influential former Paypal employee who includes Peter Thiel and Elon Musk. He joined Sequoia, one of the world’s most important venture capital firms in 2003, making early bets on companies like YouTube and Instagram. He became the leader of the company in 2022, winning the title of senior housekeeper.
Coinbase declined to comment on the matter. Bota did not respond to a request for comment. Sequoia Capital also declined to comment.
Some customers last weekend received an alert from Coinbase last weekend, indicating that their information has been misvisited.
The security of crypto executives has become a topic of concern as the industry becomes increasingly obvious.
France’s interior ministry formed a group of executives on Friday to explain the immediate measures the country is taking to end the wave of kidnappings targeting industry leaders. These measures will include special inspections at the homes of crypto executives and specific briefings for them and their families.
The meeting was targeted by the daughter and grandson of the CEO of Paymium, who was exchanged virtual currency, as the target of a failed kidnapping in the vast sunshine of Paris. Before that, another man’s father made a fortune from cryptocurrency and was released two days later.
Hackers have targeted the cryptocurrency industry for many years. The alleged North Korean attackers exploited cryptocurrency exchange Bybit in February, causing $1.5 billion in incidents, which security researchers say is more than anything that has happened before.
– Teresa Xie’s assistance.
(Updated to other context in the final paragraph. A previous version of this story spelled the Sequoia in the title.)
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