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Coinbase, Circle, Kraken Join Crypto's New 'Neighborhood Watch' for Cyberthreats

Consensys, the Solana Foundation and Fireblocks are also among the baker's dozen founding members of Crypto ISAC.

Updated May 29, 2024, 1:00 p.m. Published May 29, 2024, 1:00 p.m.

Coinbase, Kraken and Circle are among the inaugural members of a group formed to enhance cybersecurity in the cryptocurrency industry.
The information security and analysis center is the second such organization to be created for digital asset firms in as many months.

Crypto ISAC, an industry group formed earlier this month to guard against cyber threats and exploits, has revealed its founding member organizations. The roster includes several heavy hitters.

Crypto exchanges Coinbase and Kraken are among the early participants in the information security and analysis center, the second such organization to be created for digital asset firms in as many months. (The first, SEAL-ISAC, launched in April.)

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Circle, issuer of USDC, the second-largest stablecoin, is also part of Crypto ISAC, the group announced Wednesday. So are the Solana Foundation, which stewards development of the fifth-largest cryptocurrency; Consensys, a key software development company in the Ethereum ecosystem; venture investor Ribbit Capital; Fireblocks, a crypto custody specialist; and Evertas, which writes insurance against crypto thefts and spearheaded the ISAC's formation.

Flashback to 2022: Crypto Insurance Firm Evertas Wins Lloyd’s of London Approval

ISACs are common in mainstream industries such as financial services, defense and aviation. They share intelligence about cybersecurity vulnerabilities and incidents between businesses and governments and are often compared to neighborhood watch programs.

Crypto ISAC aims to not only thwart cybercrime but build legitimacy and credibility with government and law enforcement for an industry long regarded as a lawless Wild West. About $1.7 billion was lost to hackers of crypto platforms in 2023, according to blockchain-sleuthing firm Chainalysis.

Senior cybersecurity executives from Circle, Coinbase, Consensys, Fireblocks, and Solana will appear Wednesday at CoinDesk's Consensus 2024 event in Austin, Texas, to discuss their involvement in the ISAC. They will speak alongside Justine Bone, the information security maverick recently hired to be the organization's executive director, and Evertas founder and CEO Jared Gdanski.

Crypto ISAC's members are:

Aleo
Arbitrum
Circle
Coinbase
Consensys
Evertas
Fireblocks
Hedera
Kraken
Red Balloon Security
Ribbit Capital
Solana Foundation
Trail of Bits

Cybersecurity Hacks

Marc Hochstein

As Deputy Editor-in-Chief for Features, Opinion, Ethics and Standards, Marc oversees CoinDesk's long-form content, sets editorial policies and acts as the ombudsman for our industry-leading newsroom. He is also spearheading our nascent coverage of prediction markets and helps compile The Node, our daily email newsletter rounding up the biggest stories in crypto. From November 2022 to June 2024 Marc was the Executive Editor of Consensus, CoinDesk's flagship annual event. He joined CoinDesk in 2017 as a managing editor and has steadily added responsibilities over the years. Marc is a veteran journalist with more than 25 years' experience, including 17 years at the trade publication American Banker, the last three as editor-in-chief, where he was responsible for some of the earliest mainstream news coverage of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. DISCLOSURE: Marc holds BTC above CoinDesk's disclosure threshold of $1,000; marginal amounts of ETH, SOL, XMR, ZEC, MATIC and EGIRL; an Urbit planet (~fodrex-malmev); two ENS domain names (MarcHochstein.eth and MarcusHNYC.eth); and NFTs from the Oekaki (pictured), Lil Skribblers, SSRWives, and Gwar collections.