Coinbase thwarts phishing attack, but only after malicious app steals Bitcoin from users

Late last night, Bitcoin wallet Coinbase posted a memo to users saying it had discovered an email phishing attack that deceptively gets Coinbase users to give a malicious app access to their wallets.

The email asks Coinbase users to accept a new terms-of-service agreement. The exploit then prompts users to login into their Coinbase account, thus authorizing a malicious program to take Bitcoin out of their wallets. Coinbase says it has since corrected the problem and is exploring ways to prevent it in the future.

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“To stop this from happening again, we are reassessing our API/application approval process, as well as re-visiting the limits of money that can be sent over an application,” the company wrote in a post.

Additionally, Coinbase plans to educate customers on how to use its storage options safely. The company says only a small number of customers were affected by this attack, all of whom will have their stolen Bitcoin refunded to them.

This phishing attack is a small speed bump for Coinbase, which has been growing rapidly since its launch.

Already this year, Coinbase has raised a $75 million round of funding. It’s also been quickly rolling out digital products across the U.S. to build a larger use case for Bitcoin in the region and to help the company snag a large share of the market as it develops. To date Coinbase has accrued $106.7 million in funding.