ETH Saved By Ethical Hacker

An ethical hacker, who potentially saved the entire cryptocurrency market from disaster by discovering a flaw in the Coinbase ($COIN@US) platform, has been paid a reward by Coinbase. The hacker, who goes by the handle Tree of Alpha on Twitter ($TWTR@US), said they were paid $250,000, its largest-ever bounty. A flaw in Coinbase's Advanced Trading feature would have allowed a malicious user to sell Bitcoin or any other coin without owning the underlying asset. White-hat hacker Tree of Alpha said on Twitter that Coinbase’s reaction speed on a Super Bowl Friday “averted a possible crisis.” “We will never know what exactly could have happened should a black-hat hacker try to exploit it, and it is better this way,” said Tree of Alpha. Ahead of the Super Bowl, Tree of Alpha had tried to contact Coinbase and said that they were submitting a hacker1 report and it couldn’t wait as it is “potentially market nuking.” CEO Brian Armstrong thanked Tree of Alpha for working with Coinbase’s team and appreciated their community support, tweeting, “@Tree_of_Alpha you're awesome – a big thank you for working with our team – love how the crypto community helps each other out!”