Coinbase Holds a Whopping 966,230 Bitcoin ($7B) in Cold Wallet

[cheezcarls]

According to recent reports, Coinbase has a whopping 966,230 Bitcoin in its cold wallet. The exchange is increasingly becoming like a ‘bank’ which stores a growing number of deposited cryptocurrency assets.

How much cryptocurrency does each exchange hold in its cold wallet? With Coinbase leading the world in being the largest firm by crypto-assets, the numbers will probably shock you.

Read more for the full news

This is freaking enormous for Coinbase to hold a lot of Bitcoin in their own cold wallet. Speaking of cold wallet, IDAX's CEO just simply "ran away" with the exchange's cold wallet with a lot of amount on it.

I'm not saying that reputable platforms like Coinbase might gonna do the same in the near future. It's just that these platforms needs to take care of their customers and always think of their hard-earned money when trading or storing Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

I just hope that their cold wallet would remain in safe hands.

[1714883181]

1714883181

[Kprawn]

It looks like Coinbase have a good system to secure bitcoins in cold wallets. Just have a look at this, https://www.ccn.com/coinbase-brian-armstrong-crypto-bitcoin-wallet/

I quote - " “A well-designed crypto custody solution doesn’t rely on any single person. Instead, it utilizes multiple keys to achieve consensus

 and redundancy. The larger the transaction, the more parties need to consent. This is really just scratching the surface of a well-designed custody

solution.”

Also, “Air gapping” your private keys in cold storage means fully disconnecting them from the internet, such that a remote attacker can’t access

them without some physical attack as well. This additional manual step introduces a nice guarantee that it is not just software protecting your

money. <--- So they know how to do proper "Air gapping" when they transfer coins from hot to cold storage. 

Coinbase are also insuring their hot wallets, so your losses on a successful hack on Coinbase, should be covered by the insurance. 

[Lizzylove1]

From the analysis of Kprawn on Coinbase cold wallet and its mutisignature, it will be impossible for just one nothing CEO who is feeling good to just run away with the private key, since this requires a consensus. I really don't know why people will leave fund in an exchange with sole private key holder. This is dangerous and any stupid CEO with such power can pull the trigger when he feels good.

It's equally very important to have much of our fund on non-custodian wallet so we can be in-charge of our wallets.

[o_e_l_e_o]

This is not news. Coinbase admitted last year after their planned cold storage upgrade that they were holding 5% of all BTC, which would be ~1.05 million. You can read their blog post here: https://blog.coinbase.com/a-behind-the-scenes-look-at-the-biggest-and-quietest-crypto-transfer-on-record-682ff4a6d9e4.

So they know how to do proper "Air gapping" when they transfer coins from hot to cold storage.

Knowing how to properly set up and use an air gapped wallet is cold storage 101.

Coinbase are also insuring their hot wallets

Coinbase are claiming they have insured their wallets. As far as I know, this has never been proven nor tested. Please CMIIW.

it will be impossible for just one nothing CEO who is felling good to just run away with the private key

We don't know that. You are trusting Coinbase on their word here. There are plenty of exchanges, web wallets, services, ICOs, altcoins, you name it, that people have trusted and eventually been scammed.

It doesn't matter how "big" or "reputable" the entity holding your keys is. Not your keys, not your bitcoin.

[boris2470]

According to recent reports, Coinbase has a whopping 966,230 Bitcoin in its cold wallet. The exchange is increasingly becoming like a ‘bank’ which stores a growing number of deposited cryptocurrency assets.

How much cryptocurrency does each exchange hold in its cold wallet? With Coinbase leading the world in being the largest firm by crypto-assets, the numbers will probably shock you.

Read more for the full news

This is freaking enormous for Coinbase to hold a lot of Bitcoin in their own cold wallet. Speaking of cold wallet, IDAX's CEO just simply "ran away" with the exchange's cold wallet with a lot of amount on it.

I'm not saying that reputable platforms like Coinbase might gonna do the same in the near future. It's just that these platforms needs to take care of their customers and always think of their hard-earned money when trading or storing Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

I just hope that their cold wallet would remain in safe hands.

I have never trusted and will not trust Armstrong`s exchange and exchanges like Coinbase. Holding in cold wallets can testify about possible security holes, about wash trading, about money manipulations. It is very sad

[Kyraishi]

It's nice to see use multi-sig, especially with the cases of people emptying the cold fund wallet and then running away, I would assume that their cold wallet is rarely used, and requires a minimum of 3 signatures (from c-suite employees?).

Also, what's the point in storing so much BTC? Wouldn't it be smarter to liquidate at least a portion of it? I wouldn't risk that much money with my business personally, but I understand it from their side.

Air gapping is really good. Haven't seen a lot of companies use it due to complexity, especially when you actually need to send transactions from it as well

[o_e_l_e_o]

Also, what's the point in storing so much BTC? Wouldn't it be smarter to liquidate at least a portion of it? I wouldn't risk that much money with my business personally, but I understand it from their side.

Because it's not their bitcoin. These are customer deposits and holdings which the customers are trusting Coinbase to hold on their behalf. If they sold for fiat, and then bitcoin went on a bull run, they wouldn't then be able to buy back enough to honor their customers' deposits and would become insolvent.

[pixie85]

It's still dangerous because it's centralization that puts whole network at risk. Coinbase is still one entity and it makes it vulnerable. They can use cold storage but there's always the human factor. People are greedy and they make mistakes. What will we do if 7B gets compromised because of one person?

If what coinbase is showing on their site more than 70% of their users buy bitcoin so this storage is going to keep growing.

[Twinkledoe]

It's still dangerous because it's centralization that puts whole network at risk. Coinbase is still one entity and it makes it vulnerable. They can use cold storage but there's always the human factor. People are greedy and they make mistakes. What will we do if 7B gets compromised because of one person?

If what coinbase is showing on their site more than 70% of their users buy bitcoin so this storage is going to keep growing.

It is really hard to trust a person nowadays with that kind of amount. Maybe within their system, not only one person has the authority to touch that huge amount of holdings. They have contingencies if something unusual happens. But the problem is, if there will be connivance among those trusted authorities. So it only suggests that if you are a bitcoin holder, it is better to store it in your own bitcoin core wallet and not in the exchange. At least you are contented that if any hacking incident or inside job happens, your coins are safe with you.

[hatshepsut93]

From the analysis of Kprawn on Coinbase cold wallet and its mutisignature, it will be impossible for just one nothing CEO who is felling good to just run away with the private key, since this requires a consensus. I really don't know why people will leave fund in an exchange with sole private key holder. This is dangerous and any stupid CEO with such power can pull the trigger when he feels good.

It's equally very important to have much of our fund on non-custodian wallet so we can be in-charge of our wallets.

Yeah, there's less risk that Coinbase will commit an exit scam, but there's a ton of other risks - they might freeze accounts at requests of government officials, they can do the same if they will like the account is suspicious - they already do so with coins that come from gambling sites, and they can easily expand this black list. Coinbase can decide to support a fork chain and not give you your original coins - something that could have happened during the Segwit2x drama.

Keeping your coins on exchange only makes sense if you trade on a daily basis.

[samuraijin]

that's very big maybe a lot of hackers who want money from coinbase, I hope coinbase maintains security well until later, trust is more expensive from users hopefully not misused like a hacked exchange, as if they never thought about security about user money and misappropriating user funds, I also still keep some stellar in a coinbase wallet and I hope it stays safe there on their cold wallet

[CryptoBry]

This is freaking enormous for Coinbase to hold a lot of Bitcoin in their own cold wallet. Speaking of cold wallet, IDAX's CEO just simply "ran away" with the exchange's cold wallet with a lot of amount on it. I'm not saying that reputable platforms like Coinbase might gonna do the same in the near future. It's just that these platforms needs to take care of their customers and always think of their hard-earned money when trading or storing Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. I just hope that their cold wallet would remain in safe hands.

I believe that right now after the recent debacles involving IDAX and QuadrigaCX, the people behind Coinbase are really careful not to be experiencing the same fate. In my view, Coinbase is quite reputable and is not risking anything of its business by being negligent and failing to be pro-active. Coinbase well understood the kind of responsibility they have on theirs shoulders.

Still, because this is also another centralized organizations, users should really be concerned and maybe always demanding a high level of transparency from the Coinbase management. Anyway, what is so clear to us is that whether a platform is centralized or decentralized if the people behind it are really not that good and are not honest then eventually the business will fail or just evaporate into thin air.

[o_e_l_e_o]

I also still keep some stellar in a coinbase wallet

So withdraw it to your own wallet. Aren't withdrawals free?

In my view, Coinbase is quite reputable and is not risking anything of its business by being negligent and failing to be pro-active

Mt. Gox was reputable, until they scammed all their customers. Bitfinex was reputable, until it emerged they printed Tether out of thin air to save themselves from insolvency. Thinking that being reputable means your funds are safe is the same line of thinking as "too big to fail", and we've seen time and time again in bitcoin and in fiat that this is a dangerous way of thinking. Storing your coins with any third party is risky, regardless of how reputable you think they may be.

always demanding a high level of transparency from the Coinbase management.

Like when they sold users' data to third parties without their knowledge or consent? Or when they partnered with Hacking Team who develop surveillance and spying software for totalitarian governments? Or when they listed a bunch of altcoins that their shareholders told them to so they could dump their bags? Coinbase are about as transparent as a brick wall.

[crwth]

Coinbase has been in the game for seven years and counting. They have acquired the trust between people and cryptocurrency and what helped them achieve that is being early In the game. Because of this post, I was amazed at how they acquired different investments that led to acquiring different companies and partnering with various companies to help them with their goals. With only that, I think you could say that they are one of the best in the business.

Going to your opinion, being hacked is always going to be a problem because they won't know when it's going to happen, they should be aware that it could. Last August, there was an attempted hacking, but they were prepared. So I think by far, they are one of the best.

[Astvile]

It's not surprising to know that there are huge number of people who trust coinbase. Coinbase is a really well established wallet service for bitcoin and also a way to exchange bitcoins to fiat instantly so its just normal for them to have this huge amount of bitcoin. I think blockchain wallet also holds tons of bitcoin because they are the 2 big names in this kind of industry.

[alyssa85]

From the analysis of Kprawn on Coinbase cold wallet and its mutisignature, it will be impossible for just one nothing CEO who is felling good to just run away with the private key, since this requires a consensus. I really don't know why people will leave fund in an exchange with sole private key holder. This is dangerous and any stupid CEO with such power can pull the trigger when he feels good.

It's equally very important to have much of our fund on non-custodian wallet so we can be in-charge of our wallets.

People are stupid. They've been told over and over about the dangers of trusting a third party with their coins. They have the example of Mt gox, mintpal, upbit and numerous other hacks and losses.

And still they keep their coins online because they're too lazy to set up their own wallets. (Though I concede that the size of the blockchain is now a problem if you haven't got a lot of memory in your computer).

[darkangel11]

It's not surprising to know that there are huge number of people who trust coinbase. Coinbase is a really well established wallet service for bitcoin and also a way to exchange bitcoins to fiat instantly so its just normal for them to have this huge amount of bitcoin. I think blockchain wallet also holds tons of bitcoin because they are the 2 big names in this kind of industry.

It is but so was MtGox. Exchanges have a tendency to grow and gain trust with each year but then it all goes down the drain when they get hacked or somebody leaks information. I don't like Coinbase because of their full cooperation with all agencies and KYC requirements. Who knows where their KYC information will end up one day.
The money can be quite safe there but even they don't have an insurance fund that would be able to cover even $1B.

[o_e_l_e_o]

And still they keep their coins online because they're too lazy to set up their own wallets. (Though I concede that the size of the blockchain is now a problem if you haven't got a lot of memory in your computer).

The size of the blockchain is not that relevant to storing your coins securely. You can set up your own wallet by downloading, verifying and running a simple wallet such as Electrum, which has a size of 10 - 50MB depending on the version you install. Better than that, you can use a hardware wallet which also requires minimal downloading/memory, or a paper wallet which potentially requires none at all. All of these options are miles ahead of using a web wallet or exchange wallet.

You only need to download the blockchain if you want to run a full node, which although does add security in that you do not have to trust any third parties to verify transactions, does not add any security in terms of keeping your private keys safe.

[zviadits]

From the analysis of Kprawn on Coinbase cold wallet and its mutisignature, it will be impossible for just one nothing CEO who is felling good to just run away with the private key, since this requires a consensus. I really don't know why people will leave fund in an exchange with sole private key holder. This is dangerous and any stupid CEO with such power can pull the trigger when he feels good.

It's equally very important to have much of our fund on non-custodian wallet so we can be in-charge of our wallets.

People are stupid. They've been told over and over about the dangers of trusting a third party with their coins. They have the example of Mt gox, mintpal, upbit and numerous other hacks and losses.

And still they keep their coins online because they're too lazy to set up their own wallets. (Though I concede that the size of the blockchain is now a problem if you haven't got a lot of memory in your computer).

I think that people who are serious about Bitcoin storing can afford a decent computer to install a truly secure wallet.

[o_e_l_e_o]

I think that people who are serious about Bitcoin storing can afford a decent computer to install a truly secure wallet.

You don't need a decent computer. You can run a fully air gapped cold wallet on any old desktop or laptop you have lying about. You can do it on a raspberry pi for 30 bucks. You can buy a Ledger or a Trezor hardware wallet for 50 bucks. Even something like the Electrum mobile app is better than trusting an exchange. All this talk about needing good computers which have enough memory to download the entire blockchain is nonsense.