Nasdaq-listed US cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase announced on Tuesday, in a statement on its corporate blog, that it has acquired Unbound Security, a Tel Aviv-based company specializing in cyber security for crypto assets.
Coinbase acquires Unbound Security
There are no particular details on the price that Coinbase would have paid for the acquisition, but according to some estimates, it would certainly be a figure in excess of $40 million.
The news comes at a rather peculiar time in terms of security for the crypto world.
Coinbase itself revealed a few months ago that more than 6,000 of its customers had fallen victim to a phishing scam involving their accounts and personal data.
According to IT security experts, the acquisition is a further step in the exchange’s policy of strengthening its security measures.
Unbound Security will provide the company with new technology in the form of secure multiparty computing (MPC), which it claims is both very secure and easy to use.
Coinbase states in a note:
“MPC will deliver on this by protecting our customers’ assets with a technique that provides the virtually impenetrable nature of cold, offline storage, with the frictionless convenience of hot, online wallets”.
In announcing the deal, which has yet to be finalized, Coinbase then also added that it is building a new research centre in Israel that will focus on the intersection of blockchain and security. The new company is expected to be the central hub for this activity.
Security and cryptocurrencies
Security in the cryptocurrency market is considered by many to be one of the biggest vulnerabilities in the system.
There are countless cases of hacking and theft of data and money from exchanges, such as the one that hit Binance in 2019 with the theft of 7000 Bitcoin.
In August of this year, the Japanese exchange Liquid suffered a theft by a hacker amounting to around $90 million.
Also in August, hackers breached the security system of the decentralized finance platform Poly Network, stealing nearly $600 million, the largest theft in cryptocurrency history.
This is precisely why crypto companies are investing more and more resources in increasing the security of their IT systems.
With this acquisition, Coinbase has paved the way for perhaps a new phase of greater collaboration between the crypto and cyber security worlds.
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