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Coinbase Stock Falls on New Litigation and Regulatory Uncertainty

Simon Mugo trader
Updated 2 May 2023

The Coinbase Global Inc (NASDAQ: COIN) stock price fell 1.1% after news broke of fresh litigation against the company’s top executives and investment firm Andreessen Horowitz for dumping their shares during the direct listing of Coinbase shares in April 2021.


YOUR CAPITAL IS AT RISK. 76% OF RETAIL CFD ACCOUNTS LOSE MONEY.


Coinbase dismissed the lawsuit as frivolous, saying that as one of the most popular crypto exchanges in the United States and the only listed exchange, it is used to frivolous cases similar to the one before a Delaware Chancery Court brought by Adam Grabski on behalf of the company.

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YOUR CAPITAL IS AT RISK. 76% OF RETAIL CFD ACCOUNTS LOSE MONEY

Grabski is suing Coinbase Inc’s Chairman and CEO, Brian Armstrong, board member Marc Andreessen, President Emilie Choi, CFO Alesia Hass, Chief Accounting Officer Jennifer Jones and former Chief Product Officer Surojit Chatterjee for dumping their shares on the unsuspecting public. 

The litigant notes that Coinbase’s board later revealed: “material, negative information that destroyed market optimism from the company’s first quarterly earnings release forward.” Nevertheless, the company officials, including board members Fred Wilson, Frederick Ersham and Kathryn Haun, avoided losses worth $1 billion. 

On another note, Coinbase continued fighting with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) about the impeding enforcement action against the exchange by the regulator. Coinbase reiterated that it did not break any securities laws as it does not issue securities.

The crypto exchange further revealed that it would love to list securities in future, but the uncertain regulatory environment created by the Fed made such a move quite unlikely. Coinbase further insists that the SEC’s warning about enforcement action against it is unsuitable for America. 

Coinbase has received a Well’s notice from the SEC indicating that the regulator is ready to take enforcement action against it. Given the crypto exchange's defiance towards the notice, the matter will likely end up in court. 

Over the years, coinbase has singled out the SEC’s uncertain regulatory stance towards crypto as a significant deterrent to adopting blockchain technology and cryptos in the United States. Coinbase has launched a massive public campaign since receiving the Wells notice from the SEC in March. 

Coinbase hopes its public campaign will deter the SEC from enacting enforcement action against it for violating federal securities laws. 

*This is not investment advice. 

Coinbase stock price. 

The Coinbase stock price was down $1.08% at $49.60 from Monday’s closing price of $50.14. 


YOUR CAPITAL IS AT RISK. 76% OF RETAIL CFD ACCOUNTS LOSE MONEY.


Simon has over six years of professional trading experience across FX, commodities and equities. He has a strong passion for financial markets and is particularly focused on price action trading