Coinbase Explains Cold-Storage Defences After Binance Breach Shakes Crypto Industry

TL;DR: Coinbase says it was not affected by the reported Binance hot-wallet incident and that more than 99% of customer assets are kept in cold storage. The exchange outlined controls around signing, withdrawal limits and suspicious activity, offering a useful test of how custodians should explain security practices. A major attack on one exchange inevitably prompts customers elsewhere to ask the same question: where are my assets actually held, and what stops them being moved without permission? Coinbase addressed those concerns in a November 4 security explanation, published against the backdrop of the reported Binance incident. In its official post, Coinbase said it had not been affected by the breach and that more than 99% of customer assets were held in cold storage. It also described distributed signing keys, withdrawal limits, anomaly detection and emergency controls capable of stopping transaction signing. What cold storage protects, and what it does not Cold storage refers broadly to arrangements designed to keep signing authority away from routine internet-connected systems. It can reduce the exposure of a custodian’s largest reserves if a hot wallet or application layer ...