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Coinbase Quietly Performs $5 Bln Crypto Transfer

Wed, 12/19/2018 - 19:09
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Alex Dovbnya
Coinbase lives up to its status of the most security-cautious exchange by performing what is ostensibly the largest crypto transfer in history in complete secrecy
Coinbase Quietly Performs $5 Bln Crypto Transfer
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Coinbase, the major San Francisco-based fiat-to-crypto exchange, has just announced the completion of its major crypto transfer. More than $5 bln worth of crypto has quietly migrated to the exchange’s generation 4 cold storage.

The largest crypto transfer in history

The $8 bln crypto unicorn has just revealed all the details of the largest transfer in history in its most recent Medium post. The above-mentioned $5 bln figure includes 5 percent of BTC, 8 percent of ETH and 25 percent of LTC.   

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Mitigating risks

Such a mammoth-size transfer could have been easily mistaken for a security breach or a major sell-off, which would immediately take a tool on the cryptocurrency market. They were also worried that the migration news would increase the number of hacking attempts. That explains why they kept their plans in complete secrecy (apart from an ambiguous post about ‘scheduled maintenance’ published on Nov. 7 that stirred some buzz in the crypto community).

The golden standard of security

It is worth mentioning that Coinbase stores 98 percent of its users’ funds in its cold storage in order to reach the highest level of security. They’ve made a long way from keys in a safety deposit box to the generation 4 storage system with high-profile key governance that is already being utilized by large institutions.  

The golden standard of security

Earlier U.Today shed light on how the exchange prints private keys in a remote Faraday tent and physically destroys laptops that are used for the procedure. That explains why the old-timer exchange has never experienced a single successful hacking attack.
 

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About the author

Alex Dovbnya (aka AlexMorris) is a cryptocurrency expert, trader and journalist with extensive experience of covering everything related to the burgeoning industry — from price analysis to Blockchain disruption. Alex authored more than 1,000 stories for U.Today, CryptoComes and other fintech media outlets. He’s particularly interested in regulatory trends around the globe that are shaping the future of digital assets, can be contacted at alex.dovbnya@u.today.