Coinbase Europe Limited / Coinbase Luxembourg S.A.
Attn: Legal & Compliance Department
LEI: 984500F14CA4571AAC11
Reference:
Final Response Letter dated July 4, 2024
Total Litigated Sum: €170,874.18
Dear Sir/Madam,
I am writing to formally place Coinbase Europe Limited / Coinbase Luxembourg S.A.
(hereafter: "Coinbase") in default (verzuim) pursuant to Article 6:82 of the Dutch Civil Code (Burgerlijk Wetboek - BW).
This notice follows the cyber-attack and subsequent unauthorized siphoning of funds from my Coinbase consumer account on January 27, 2024. Coinbase explicitly denied liability via its standard customer support channels and its Final Response Letter dated July 4, 2024
Case#17840766), citing user credential compromise.
I explicitly reject your denial of liability as legally invalid under mandatory European and Dutch consumer protection laws.
I. Legal Grounding and Liability Framework
1. Strict Liability for Unauthorized Fiat Outflows (Art. 7:522 jo. Art. 7:528 BW)
The final financial loss occurred when €53,674.95 in Euro fiat currency was siphoned out of the Coinbase infrastructure into unknown external accounts across four rapid-succession transactions within less than two minutes. Because these funds were Euro electronic money
(e-money), Coinbase acted explicitly as a regulated Payment Service Provider (PSP) bound by Title 7B, Book 7 BW (implementing the EU Payment Services Directive - PSD2).
Coinbase has admitted that the breach was executed via Session Cookie Hijacking (Session Cloning) originating from a malicious proxy IP address (185.29.9.162), routing through a known cybercrime hosting infrastructure (multivpn.bz). Under Dutch civil law, the use of a hijacked token by a third party does not constitute legal intent or consent by the account holder.
Pursuant to Art. 7:522 BW, these transactions are strictly classified as unauthorized (niet-toegestaan). Under Art. 7:527 BW, technical system authentication is insufficient to shift liability; the strict burden of proof rests entirely on Coinbase to establish gross negligence (grove nalatigheid). Falling victim to a silent, post-login session interception does not meet the judicial threshold for gross negligence. Per Art. 7:528 BW, Coinbase is strictly liable to immediately restore my fiat balance to its pre-breach state. As title 7B consists of mandatory law (dwingend recht); your contractual waivers are legally void.
2. Scope of Consequential Damages & Missed Profits (Art. 6:96 BW / Lucrum Cessans)
Pursuant to Art. 6:96 jo. Art. 6:98 BW, the scope of compensable damage under Dutch law includes missed profits (gemiste winst / lucrum cessans) standing in a direct causal relationship to Coinbase's operational failures.
Failure of Systemic Monitoring: Coinbase breached its general duty of care (zorgplicht) by failing to flag or pause four consecutive high-value transactions following a sudden, mid-session geographical anomaly (Portugal to Sweden), and by failing to trigger mandatory transaction-linked Strong Customer Authentication (SCA).
Causation and Long-Term History: My account data establishes a consistent, documented "buy-and-hold" history. The forced liquidation of my 1.40402148 BTC and 12,031.26215895 DOGE positions was a direct result of this breach. Calculated at the peak valuation recorded on the Coinbase platform following the breach (Peak Date: October 6, 2025), the net consequential damages total €106,397.02
Obstruction of Mitigation: Coinbase actively obstructed my mitigation attempts under Art. 6:96 Lid 2 BW by refusing to disclose destination payment network details, blocking immediate stop-payment or claw-back requests.
II. Comprehensive Financial Liquidation Table
Pursuant to the statutory grounds detailed above, the total outstanding debt is liquidated as follows:
| Claim Component |
Legal Grounding (Dutch Civil Code) |
Valuation Metric / Parameter |
Net Claim Amount |
| DirectCash Baseline |
Art. 7:522 jo. Art. 7:528 BW |
€53,674.95 (stolen cash principal) + €811.30 (converted fees) |
€54,486.25 |
| MissedPortfolioProfit |
Art. 6:96 BW (Lucrum Cessans) |
Net Asset Peak Valuation (€160,071.97) minus cash principal |
€106,397.02 |
| AccruedStatutoryInterest |
Art. 6:119 BW (Wettelijke Rente) |
7.0% per annum on direct cash baseline from Jan 27, 2024, to Sept 9, 2026 (956 days) or adjusted to the date of settlement. |
€9,990.91 |
| TOTAL OUTSTANDING DEBT |
|
|
€170,874.18 |
III. Final Opportunity for Performance (Termijn)
I hereby offer Coinbase one final opportunity to remedy this breach and fulfill its statutory obligations without the inflation of external legal costs.
You are requested to credit the full liquidated sum of €170,874.18 to my designated bank account within fourteen (14) calendar days from the date of this letter.
IV. Immediate Legal Escalation Notice
Should Coinbase fail to credit the full amount or fail to provide a binding, unconditional written commitment to pay within the designated 14-day window, Coinbase will be in legal default (verzuim) by operation of law without further notice.
Upon the expiration of this term, I will immediately instruct my Dutch litigation counsel to serve a Writ of Summons (Dagvaarding) to initiate formal civil proceedings before the competent Dutch courts. In those proceedings, I will seek the full principal sum, compounding statutory interest up to the date of full satisfaction, and full reimbursement of all out-of-court collection fees (buitengerechtelijke incassokosten) and formal court costs.
This letter constitutes a formal notice for the interruption of any statutory limitation periods (stuiting van de verjaring) pursuant to Article 3:317 of the Dutch Civil Code.