Coinbase announced Verified Pools, a new service intended to attract institutional users. These liquidity pools will offer clients a secure way to take advantage of high efficiency and native on-chain infrastructure.
Liquidity pools, in general, offer many of the same advantages, but they do not have sufficient security assurances for major institutions. The exchange hopes to provide security and confidence with proactive measures like KYC and sanctions screening.
Today, the exchange announced the introduction of Verified Pools, an institutional-grade service to enhance on-chain trades and swaps.
“Verified Pools is a curated selection of liquidity pools available only with the Coinbase Verifications credential. Verified Pools is the next step in Coinbase’s commitment to advancing the onchain ecosystem and generating the next wave of onchain adoption,” the firm claimed via social media.
Coinbase’s Verified Pools hope to solve an important issue for institutional investors in the crypto space.
Specifically, how can retail users or traditional institutions participate in DeFi despite significant barriers around compliance, counterparty risk, and operational complexity?
Sketchy exchanges and business practices are epidemic in the industry, and these institutions need real assurances.
Through Verified Pools, Coinbase addresses several of these concerns. It ensures that all participants of a liquidity pool are identity-verified using Coinbase’s verification system
The whole platform is powered by Base, Coinbase’s Ethereum-centric L2 blockchain solution. This means that the service is natively on-chain and can benefit from smooth transactions while ensuring security, transparency, and accountability.
Verified Pools offer a few other attractive features for Coinbase’s institutional clients. For example, the pools are non-custodial, allowing users to maintain control over their assets.
In the main, however, the exchange is trying to offer liquidity pools with all their advantages to institutional traders, which is uncommon. The main benefits are inherent to pools in general.
In short, Coinbase’s Verified Pools can offer liquidity, efficiency, and transparency while prioritizing user security and confidence. Moving forward, the exchange plans to expand asset coverage and trading pairs, integrate more DEX aggregators, offer the service in more countries, and more.
Michael Saylor’s Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) added 130 Bitcoin (BTC) to its holdings between March 10 and March 16, spending approximately $10.7 million.
The average BTC price for this purchase was $82,981. This marks the company’s smallest Bitcoin purchase since August 2024.
Why are MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin Purchases Becoming Smaller?
As of March 16, MicroStrategy holds 499,226 BTC, worth around $33.1 billion. The company’s overall average cost per Bitcoin stands at approximately $66,000.
Now, with Bitcoin trading lower, this smaller buy raises questions about the firm’s strategy.
“On-chain clues: Is Bitcoin gearing up for a major reversal? Active addresses peak, signaling potential bullish momentum ahead,” Saylor posted on X (formerly Twitter) today.
One possible reason for the limited purchase is that MicroStrategy may be waiting for more capital from its stock offerings.
MicroStrategy finances Bitcoin acquisitions through stock sales and zero-interest convertible notes without selling off other assets.
While this approach has worked so far, the firm’s ability to raise capital depends on maintaining strong financial stability. A sharp rise in liabilities relative to assets could make future financing more difficult.
However, there’s a more concerning reason why MicroStrategy could have made such a small Bitcoin purchase today.
Bitcoin is currently trading just below $83,000, and some analysts suggest the price has not yet bottomed. Arthur Hayes and other experts predict BTC could drop to around $70,000 before the next upward move.
The state of security across the crypto and blockchain space has changed significantly in the past few months. Traditional smart contracts exploited or brute force attacks on blockchain networks are being superseded by crypto scams like rug pulls and pump-and-dump schemes.
BeInCrypto spoke with a spokesperson from security firm CertiK to understand how blockchain and security threats are evolving and how projects and users can safeguard against future exploits.
Social Media Hacks on the Rise
Over the past few months, the crypto community has seen a rise in social media-related hacks. This increasingly common tendency has pivoted away from the orchestration of more sophisticated blockchain attacks that have traditionally plagued headlines.
Whereas smart contract exploits or blockchain hacks require more knowledge, hackers have found an easier avenue by targeting social media accounts instead.
X (formerly Twitter) has quickly become the social media platform of choice among Web3 hackers.
Social Media is Now a Prime Target for Web3 Hackers
After US President Donald Trump launched his meme coin only two days before assuming office, hackers began to take advantage of the hype to hack high-profile X accounts and convince followers to invest in scam meme coins.
Last month, anonymous hackers took over the X account of the former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad to promote MALAYSIA, a fake meme coin promoted as the country’s official cryptocurrency.
The post was removed within an hour, but the damage was done. Analysis shows that these hackers were probably related to the infamous Russian Evil Corp and that they stole $1.7 million in this rug pull.
The MALAYSIA token scam happened only two weeks after hackers exploited former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s social media account. In that instance, scammers promoted the BRAZIL token, which rose over 10,000% in minutes, netting the scammers over $1.3 million.
These scams have also affected technological companies.
Attacks on Tech Companies
In December, AI research and development company Anthropic also saw its X account hacked. A fraudulent post claimed that a fake token called CLAUDE would incentivize AI and crypto projects and included a wallet address for investors.
Attackers managed to collect around $100,000 from speculative investors.
These situations also highlight a broader issue of weak account security on social media platforms. As a result, even prominent individuals are susceptible to security breaches that directly affect the crypto community.
TRUMP Meme Coin Launch Was a Catalyst For Crypto Scams
“Now is the time to talk about the fact that large-scale political coins cross a further line: they are not just sources of fun, whose harm is at most contained to mistakes made by voluntary participants, they are vehicles for unlimited political bribery, including from foreign nation states,” Buterin claimed.
Buterin highlighted the tokens’ role in enabling scams and political corruption in crypto and blamed a regulatory loophole former SEC Chair Gary Gensler created for allowing bad actors to exploit governance tokens.
However, these crypto scams extend beyond political themes.
Growth of Social Engineering Exploits
A week after Buterin cautioned against political meme coins, a Coinbase user lost $11.5 million after falling victim to a social engineering scam on Base.
Crypto sleuth ZackXBT uncovered the exploit, pointing out that this incident is part of a growing trend, with multiple Coinbase users suffering similar losses. He also estimates that crypto scams of this nature have drained at least $150 million from Coinbase customers.
“Coinbase has a serious fraud problem. I just uncovered many more recent thefts from Coinbase users. The $150 million stolen from Coinbase users in a year is just from thefts I independently confirmed. So it’s more than likely multiples of this number,” ZachXBT stated.
In social engineering scams, attackers use phishing emails, spoofed calls, and other deceptive tactics to trick victims into revealing private keys or login credentials. Once they gain access, they drain wallets, move funds, and take control of accounts.
For CertiK, these situations stipulate the need for stronger security measures.
Addressing these security challenges is crucial as new crypto projects increase exponentially.
Prioritizing Proactive Security in a Rapidly Growing Industry
The Web3 sector is experiencing consistent growth, marked by a surge in new crypto project launches. This innovative momentum is expected to continue, but it’s also fueling security concerns.
Notably, the increasing rate of scams and hacks in the first three months of 2025 makes it clear that security efforts are struggling to keep up with innovation.
A study by Precedence Research estimates the Web 3.0 market will expand from USD 4.62 billion in 2025 to approximately USD 99.75 billion by 2034, with a projected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 41.18% during that period.
Predicted market size of Web3 in the next ten years. Source: Precedence Research.
Yet, CertiK believes that project developers are pushing security considerations toward the end of the priority list.
As the Web3 ecosystem evolves, a proactive and adaptive security approach is critical. Prioritizing both blockchain integrity and social media vigilance will be essential for safeguarding the growing Web3 ecosystem.
The battle against these exploits requires a future where security is not an afterthought but a foundational pillar of every Web3 project and user interaction.
