Crypto Whale Sues Coinbase for Refusing to Return $55 Million in Stolen Funds

According to Decrypt, an anonymous cryptocurrency whale filed a lawsuit against Coinbase this week in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, accusing the exchange of refusing to return over $55 million worth of DAI stablecoins stolen in a phishing attack in 2024. The plaintiff claims to have engaged multiple on-chain investigation firms to trace the funds, ultimately identifying that the stolen assets flowed into a Coinbase account. Coinbase confirmed in December 2024 that it had frozen the relevant assets but refused to return them, citing the need for a court order. As of today—more than a year and a half after the incident—the victim has still not recovered the assets and has therefore turned to litigation. The attack was carried out by hackers using the “Inferno Drainer” tool to spoof the DeFi Saver login page; after the victim inadvertently interacted with the fake page, their wallet was fully compromised by the attackers.