A spokesperson for Coinbase states, “Prices for cryptos denominated in Georgia’s national currency had been rated at GEL 290 instead of GEL 2.90. The missed decimal point had been due to a ‘third-party technical issue.”
A decimal point error in Coinbase’s exchange allowed users to cash out their Lari (GEL) assets for a hundred times the market price.
Earlier this week, Coinbase accidentally priced Georgia’s national currency, the Lari, at $290 instead of the actual exchange rate of $2.9. This allowed users holding $100 worth of GEL to withdraw it for $10,000, thereby earning 100x times the amount thanks to the bug. The total funds lost due to this exploit remain undisclosed, with Coinbase denying a Georgian trading community’s claims that the estimated loss ranges between $14M to $140M.
Coinbase revealed that the missing decimal point was due to a “third party technical issue.” The incorrect price was patched within seven hours, with Coinbase claiming that at least 1K users exploited the bug.
According to the spokesperson,
“Upon detection, we fixed the issue and are taking action to retrieve the improperly withdrawn funds.”
In response, Coinbase sought clawback of the funds by notifying the banks about the issue, with at least two of these banks freezing all accounts (and associated debit cards) suspected of milking the exploit.
Lastly, a Coinbase user reported receiving the following blanket text from their bank,
“Hello, we have marked your transactions with Coinbase as suspicious and we’re locking all your accounts and cards.”
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