It seems that lawsuits in the crypto space aren’t going to decrease any time soon. From the look of it, even the biggest market player can find themselves in the bad books of some people if they don’t watch out. The latest victim to this is Coinbase, a US-based crypto exchange and that’s been accused of messing around with Bitcoin. In fact, this is not the first time someone has tried to put the company before a juror.
The Last One Flopped
In 2017, Jeffery Berk filled a lawsuit against Coinbase for allegedly facilitating insider trading of Bitcoin Cash on its platform. In the suit, Jeffery accused Coinbase officials of the said vice. However, the case didn’t take off as it failed to see its day in court in October. It was thrown out for failing to clearly define Coinbase’s duties and failures in relation to the allegations tabled before the court.
Current Case – What Happened To Bitcoin (BTC) And BCH?
After the last case was snubbed by the court, Jeffery has now filled another one, albeit amended, seeking to address the same issue of insider trading. This comes just as the crypto market is taking hits after hits due to the ongoing war between Bitcoin Cash ABC and Bitcoin Cash SV. The two chains came about as a result of the eventful Bitcoin Cash hard fork that brewed a lot of rivalry between the two groups.
In the amended case, Coinbase is accused of conducted a flawed listing and trying to inflate the price of Bitcoin Cash while suppressing Bitcoin. In so doing, the exchange’s goal was to influence more BCH transactions and bring itself more profits. As such, the exchange is culpable in outlawed insider trading activities for which its officials are alleged to have had a hand in. As a matter of fact, this case could pronounce a serious turning point about the policies governing crypto exchanges and their operating procedures especially when it comes to listing digital assets.
Coinbase Investigated Meddling
However, Coinbase claims to have conducted its own internal investigation and found no evidence to suggest that insider trading happened during the said rollout.
Coinbase has been notified of the case and is expected to respond to the allegations before December 20th. In a new twist, the judge handling the case, District Judge Vince Chhabria, said that Coinbase might have actually conducted a “bungled” roll-out of the BCH token. The case has been slated for court trial on January 31st 2019.
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