March 4, 2018 The Bitcoin News Bitcoin, Breaking news, Coinbase 0 This article was originally posted on The Bitcoin News - a trusted site covering numerous topics related to Bitcoin since 2012. The US-based Exchange Coinbase was brought to the dock last Friday for two misdemeanors. One is a violation of the California Unclaimed Property Law, and one is illegal and unfair business practices. The outcome of these procedures is not yet in sight. As the indictment of Coinbase users Timothy G. Faasse and Jeffrey Hansen, who act on behalf of yet more prosecutors, shows, the lawsuit concerns inconsistencies in the transaction of cryptocurrencies. Coinbase allows the transfer of crypto currencies traded on the platform to external email addresses rather than crypto wallets only. Users can then claim their purchased coins via the link sent by e-mail. The problem with the matter is that not all portfolios were actually used in this way. Now comes the question of what happens to the unclaimed assets. In Scripture it says rhetorically: Imagine writing a check to a friend. The bank withdraws money from your account, but your friend never collects the check. Can the bank keep the money? The law clearly denies that. But thats exactly what happened to cryptocurrencies sent through Coinbase.com. Thus, the prosecutor of the platform Coinbase accuse fraud on the customer and a very clear legal violation. Rather than alerting customers that the coins they had sent were never accepted, Coinbase simply withheld the amount, in violation of Californias unclaimed property law.Insider Trading with Bitcoin Cash However, the platform also has to deal with another case. According to a complaint filed on Friday by user Jeffrey Berk, employees and other internees are said to have benefited from cryptocurrency information that was not available to the public at the time. Priority is given to the knowledge that the Exchange began listing Bitcoin Cash in December of last year. According to the prosecutor, who also acts as a proxy for all victims, Coinbase was able to artificially influence prices between 19 and 21 December as a result of an asymmetrical distribution of information. This action has damaged many investors who have been active during this period. How Coinbase will react to the two charges is still unclear at the present time. So far, the allegations do not seem to have hurt sales at the Exchange. from German: agt-in-zwei-punkten/ TheBitcoinNews.com leading Bitcoin News source since 2012 Virtual currency is not legal tender, is not backed by the government, and accounts and value balances are not subject to consumer protections. The information does not constitute investment advice or an offer to invest.

March 4, 2018 Bitcoin News attorneys, bch, BCH Launch, Bitcoin Cash, Brian Armstrong, Class Action Lawsuit, Coinbase, Confidentiality, cryptocurrency trading, David Farmer, December 19, defendant, GDAX, insider trading, Jury Trial, Lawfirm, Lawyers, N-Featured, NEWS, order books, plaintiff 0 This article was originally posted on Bitcoin News - delivering news related to the Bitcoin network from multiple locations around the world. For more follow the link below. News A class action lawsuit was filed against Coinbase this past Thursday on March 1 accusing the exchange of insider trading for the bitcoin cash launch last December. The complaint filed by the plaintiff is demanding a jury trial for losses incurred on behalf of himself and the other customers involved. Also read:Markets Update: Crypto Markets Continue to Spike Higher Last year there were some unsatisfied customers who complained about the Coinbase bitcoin cash launch. An individual named Jeffrey Berk and others similarly situated have filed a class action complaint in California against the exchange Coinbase for alleged insider trading. The 18-page lawsuit filing accuses the exchange of tipping employees a month prior to the official launch of bitcoin cash (BCH) on December 19, 2017. The case is demanding a jury trial against Coinbase Inc., GDAX, David Farmer, and Brian Armstrong. According to Berks complaint, he says that customers who placed purchase, sale or trade orders on the BCH launch date suffered monetary losses due to alleged company employees tipping people off well before the release date. On December 19, 2017, a month after tipping off its own employees as to when itwould commence fully supporting BCH, Coinbase suddenly announced that it was opening upits books to the buying and selling of BCH within minutes after its announcements, explains the class action lawsuit. Unsurprisingly, those who had been tipped off, immediately swamped Coinbaseand the GDAX with buy and sell orders, thinning the liquidity but obtaining BCH at fair prices. The market effect was to unfairly drive up the price of BCH for non-insider traders once BCH came online on the Coinbase exchange. The price of BCH that evening almost reached $10,000 USD on GDAX. The filing says the those who were not tipped off were not so lucky because after insiders sold their BCH the trading platform halted all trading activities. The complaint details the exchange tried again the very next day to launch the coin but ceased trading again. They opened BCH for purchase, sale and trading the next day, and againwithin minutes, closed the books and canceled all the outstanding order while insiders andthose who had prior knowledge of Coinbases confidential information were able to buy, selland trade, the complaint states. The San Francisco based firm Coinbase had responded to accusations of insider trading in a blog post written by the companys founder Brian Armstrong on December 19. In that post, Armstrong describes the firms internal trading and confidentiality policies. Armstrong says that the company has had internal policies in place well before the launch of BCH and all employees were prohibited from trading and talking with outsiders about the launch. This was communicated multiple times via multiple channels to employees The trading restriction, which applies to all personal trading activity on any platform, remains in effect now, the Coinbase founder details. I take the confidentiality of material non-public information very seriously as CEO. Given the price increase in the hours leading up the announcement, we will be conducting an investigation into this matter. If we find evidence of any employee or contractor violating our policies directly or indirectly I will not hesitate to terminate the employee immediately and take appropriate legal action. It remains to be seen what becomes of the Berk-vs-Coinbase case filed in California. Berk is represented by two attorneys from Green and Noblin P.C., and the Grant Law Firm. The complaint is demanding a jury trial where both parties can outline their case, and present further evidence. What do you think about the class-action lawsuit filed against Coinbase? Let us know what you think in the comments below. Images via Shutterstock, Bitcoincash.org, Pixabay, Coinbase logo, GDAX interface, and Twitter. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check ourtoolssection.

CryptoCurrency exchange Coinbase was served with two federal class action lawsuits in only two days including an action accusing the employees of insider trading of Bitcoin Cash. In the first class action lawsuit filed on March 1st, the plaintiffs claim that Coinbaseexecutives illegally profited via insider tradingon non-public information. The actionwas filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California bylead plaintiffJeffrey Berk on behalf of himself and a group ofCoinbasecustomers. Artificially Pumped Up Prices The lawsuit alleges thatthis insider trading activity by Coinbaseemployees artificially pumped the price of Bitcoin Cash in turn causing customers and the rest of the cryptocurrency marketto lose money on their crypto-trades. The plaintiff alleged inthe complaint found here: On December 19, 2017, a month after tipping off its own employees as to when it would begin supporting BitCoin Cash (BCH), Coinbase announced that it was opening up to buying and selling of BCH within mere minutes after its announcements. Not so surprisingly, those people who had been tipped off quickly flooded Coinbase with buy and sell orders, thinning out the liquidity but obtaining BitCoin Cash (BCH) at fair prices. The market effect was to unfairly run up the price of BitCoin Cash (BCH) for non-insider traders once BitCoin Cash came online on the Coinbase trading exchange. Without question, the sheer price as well as the trading volume of Bitcoin Cash spiked on December 20, as evinced by the chart below: The class action lawsuit demands a jury trial and monetary damagesfor all Coinbase users who placed buy, sell or trade orders with Coinbase during the period of Dec. 19, 2017 through and including the date of Dec. 21, 2017 and those who suffered monetary loss as a direct result of the Defendants wrongdoing. Coinbase Accused of Unfair Practices The secondclass action lawsuit was filed a day later with coinbaseaccused that it engaged in unlawful and unfair business practices as well as violating CaliforniasUnclaimed Property Law. Jeffrey Hansen and Timothy G. Faasse, filing on March 2nd on behalf of a class of coinbase customers, accusethe exchange of fraudulently keepingfunds they knew did not belong to them simply because customershad not claimed them. Thecomplaint found here alleges: Coinbase users can send Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash (collectively known as Cryptocurrency) to an email address. Plaintiffs and the Class were sent an email from Coinbase stating they had Cryptocurrency, with a link to create a Coinbase account to redeem it. However until 2017, most people never heard of a bitcoin or crypto-currency, so most of these emails were disregarded. And most of the so-called Cryptocurrency went unclaimed. But instead of notifying Plaintiffs and the Class they had unclaimed Cryptocurrencies, or turning those Cryptocurrencies over to the State of California as required by Californias Unclaimed Property LawCoinbase kept them. OlCrypto, CBNN Related

A class action lawsuit has been filed against popular California-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase on March 2. The lawsuit accuses Coinbase of both violating California’s Unclaimed Property Law and conducting unlawful and unfair business practices. The allegations against Coinbase stem from the exchange allowing its users to send Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash to external email addresses — as opposed to cryptocurrency wallets. The emails would come with a link allowing the recipient to create a Coinbase account and claim their cryptocurrency. However, not every transaction was redeemed, and questions have been asked regarding what has happened to those unredeemed funds. Imagine writing a cashier’s check to a friend. The bank withdraws funds from your account, but your friend never cashes the check. Does the bank get to keep the funds? The law clearly says no. But this is exactly what has happened with Cryptocurrencies sent through Coinbase.com… The Plaintiffs allege that Coinbase has opted to keep the unclaimed cryptocurrencies, as opposed to notifying the senders that the funds were never claimed – which purportedly violates the State of California’s Unclaimed Property Law. Accordingly, this class action seeks to recover these unclaimed Cryptocurrencies and deliver them to the intended recipients, as well as all “forks” thereof (e.g. Bitcoin Cash fork of Bitcoin), and “airdrops” related thereto (e.g., ERC20 […] airdrops of Ethereum related tokens). Funds which cannot be delivered to recipients due to stale email addresses are asked to be turned over to the State of California in order “to prevent unjust enrichment of [Coinbase].” Coinbase has had a whole slew of issues lately. In addition to a class action lawsuit regarding violations of California’s Unclaimed Property Law, a class action lawsuit has been filed against the exchange for alleged insider trading. The exchange also recently was forced to deal with the gross duplication of users’ past orders, effectively draining users’ bank accounts without permission. However, VISA ultimately accepted responsibility for the erroneous fault – though the damage has undoubtedly been done to Coinbase’s reputation as a secure exchange to invest in cryptocurrencies. Do you think Coinbase owes its users unclaimed funds sent via email, in addition to any and all forked cryptocurrencies? Let us know in the comments below! Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Mariko Reed/Office Snapshots The post Coinbase Hit with SECOND Class Action Lawsuit for Violating ‘Unclaimed Property’ Laws appeared first on Bitcoinist.com.

A group of private cryptocurrency traders just filed a class action lawsuit against Coinbase, one of the world's largest digital currency exchanges. The group alleges that Coinbase employees engaged in insider trading of the relatively new cryptocurrency called bitcoin cash. Exchanges are a vital part of read more #BChainItalia AddThis Advanced Settings above via filter on the_content AddThis Advanced Settings below via filter on the_content AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content

Last December, Coinbase announced that customers on their platform will be able to buy, sell and receive Bitcoin Cash on their platform. Right after the announcement, the price of Bitcoin Cash skyrocket from $3,100 to $8,499 – a mind-boggling 174.16% price increase. The absurd increase in price led to allegations of insider trading, or front-running – the act of buying huge amounts of a certain stock on advance information provided by their brokers and investment analysts. In this case, Coinbase employees and affiliates were the ones under scrutiny. Right after the Bitcoin Cash fiasco, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong expressed his intentions to launch an insider trading probe on Coinbase employees, via a blog post. “I take the confidentiality of material non-public information very seriously as CEO. Given the price increase in the hours leading up the announcement, we will be conducting an investigation into this matter. If we find evidence of any employee or contractor violating our policies — directly or indirectly — I will not hesitate to terminate the employee immediately and take appropriate legal action.” Despite this, no concrete action was taken against the exchange itself, at least not from a legal standpoint. However, all this ended last Thursday. According to The Recorder Law, Coinbase now faces a class action lawsuit from Coinbase user Jeffery Berk, who claims that its employees and other insiders benefited from trading on non-public information about the release of Bitcoin Cash on Coinbase’s platform last December. Berk, who is an Arizona resident, filed the complaint in the US District Court for the Northern District of California on Thursday, March 1. He was represented by two law firms. Below is an excerpt from the lawsuit: “This is a class action on behalf of all Coinbase customers who placed purchase, sale or trade orders with Coinbase or the GDAX in connection with Coinbase’s launch of BCH during the period of December 19, 2017 through and including December 21, 2017…and who suffered monetary loss as a result of Defendants’ wrongdoing.” In the lawsuit, the plaintiff, Berk, accuses Coinbase of the “artificially inflated prices” of Bitcoin Cash minutes after Coinbase launched the forked version of Bitcoin on its platform on Dec. 19, 2017. This isn’t the first time Coinbase has come under heavy scrutiny from the authorities. Just last week, on Feb. 23, Coinbase informed 13,000 of its “high-transacting” users that their information will be handed over to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) after receiving a legal order as a result of an ongoing legal conflict between the IRS and the crypto exchange platform. Have a breaking story? Let us know here. CryptoTicker.io is a crypto news-platform around blockchain, cryptocurrencies and futurism. By using this site you agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. CryptoTicker.io is a crypto news-platform around blockchain, cryptocurrencies and futurism. By using this site you agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

The plaintiff has charged Coinbase for making false and deceptive statements on the rollout of Bitcoin Cash last year after the Bitcoin hard fork.According to the latest filing on November 20, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is facing a new class-action lawsuit for alleged insider trading of Bitcoin Cash. The lawsuit dates back to last year’s roll-out of Bitcoin Cash by Coinbase after the Bitcoin hard fork. According to the new documents, the proceedings of the case will start on Jan. 31 2019, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.Coinbase previously faced charges of BCH insider trading wherein Jeffery Berk filed a lawsuit against Coinbase. However, the Berk faced a setback when District Judge Vince Chhabria ruled out Berk’s claims due to failure to “describe the scope or content of Coinbase’s duty.”The document shows the amended version of the lawsuit wherein the plaintiff charges Coinbase of making deceptive statements. The plaintiff claims that this caused the BCH price to rise while simultaneously suppressing Bitcoin price. Further, it notes that Coinbase insiders who knew that the exchange would list BCH, traded the token before the customers.“The sudden launch (of BCH) was effectively part of an attack by Coinbase and (CEO Brian Armstrong) to depress the price of BTC and to inflate the price of BCH, to encourage more transactions and greater profitability for Coinbase.As a consequence of this scheme, the Individual Defendants and Coinbase enabled Coinbase to earn significant fees from the trades of its customers, from which Coinbase earned a spread over an inflated price for BCH, and to avoid a ‘run’ on the Company by sellers anxious to take advantage of the inflated price, by closing down trading within minutes of the Launch to all except certain insiders who were positioned to and did sell BCH at inflated prices during the Launch.”Moreover, the complainant in the amended lawsuit notes that the BCH rollout by Coinbase failed to abide by the token listing standards on Coinbase Pro (earlier GDAX). Also, Coinbase claimed that it would inform investors priorly before allowing the Bitcoin Cash withdrawals. However, the filing claims that Coinbase allowed withdrawals even before warning its customers.The plaintiffs further allege that at the time Bitcoin Cash was listed, only buying orders were available on the platform which caused the BCH price to inflate. The plaintiffs are now seeking damages for the same. The costs incurred and the amount shall be determined at the time of trial.Coinbase is asked to provide a response on the same by December 20, next month. As said earlier the hearing is likely to take place by the end of January 2019.We welcome comments that advance the story directly or with relevant tangential information. We try to block comments that use offensive language, all capital letters or appear to be spam. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Coinspeaker Ltd.Join our list to receive latest Blockchain, Crypto & Fintech news:At CoinSpeaker we use cookies in order to improve site performance, offer you a better browsing experience and enable you to easily share content.Our official bitcoin address: 3PsADnPdtg4LC6b6JL8t7vyekqmNqiBGieCopyright © 2018 Coinspeaker Ltd.

Two Class Action Suits Filed Against Coinbase On March 1st and March 2nd, two separate class action lawsuits were filed against the California-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase.  And, even though these are not the first allegations to be targeted at the company, they may have the most dire consequences. The complaints were filed following the launch of Bitcoin Cash on the company’s exchange which took place on December 19th of 2017 and accused the company of insider trading and the illegal possession of intellectual property. The first of the two lawsuits were filed by Jeffrey Berk, a citizen from Arizona, who accused the exchange and its employees of taking advantage of its clients between the morning of December 19th and December 21st, 2017 when Bitcoin Cash (BCH) was first made available on the exchange.The complainant claims that Coinbase intentionally inflated prices on the initial offers of Bitcoin Cash (BCH) on December 19th. The result of this manipulation was a 130% increase which brought the price of BCH up to $4,300 from $1,865 just two days prior. The second lawsuit was filed by T. Faase, G. Hansen in association with any other person who found themselves in a similar situation. It is based on the poor management of assets transferred on Coinbase’s platform, specifically those issued from other cryptocurrency forks.In essence, the complaint states that, unlike other virtual wallets, Coinbase allows its users the ability to transfer funds using a single e-mail address. In an e-mail, the company sent a link allowing the recipient to create a virtual wallet on their platform containing said funds. However, according to the complainants, not all funds were claimed by the recipients and Coinbase did not follow the current regulations of unclaimed property.“Imagine writing a check to a friend. Then, the bank withdraws the funds from your account before your friend cashes the check. Is the bank allowed to keep the funds? The law clearly says no, but that’s exactly what happened with cryptocurrency sent via Coinbase.com…”The law in California clearly states that funds not delivered or claimed by their recipient due to an out-of-date e-mail address must be left to the state to “prevent illicit enrichment.” The goal of the Faase and Hansen is to expose assets that are derived from forks or divergences in a cryptocurrency’s Blockchain.Digital currency’s such as Bitcoin and Ethereum have given rise to other derivative cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin Gold and Ethereum Classic. The newly created coins or tokens are made available to all portfolios which possessed the original cryptocurrency before the fork. In other words, if you possessed 100 Bitcoins before the divergence which took place on August 1st, 2017, you would be awarded 100 Bitcoin Cash for free.As the host of virtual portfolios, Coinbase will have to explain their management of funds that were never claimed. Look Too Hard and You Might Miss the Point Since its inception in 2012, Coinbase has become a world leading cryptocurrency exchange with more than 13 million users.Unfortunately, these two lawsuits come not long after the company falsely charged their clients transfer fees in February of 2018. If in this case Visa was able to recognize that the mistake was their own, we are left reasonably wondering about the company’s capability to deal with these other controversies.Meanwhile, on February 23rd of this year, Coinbase informed 13,000 of its users that they had informed the US Internal Revenue Service about their personal information. Tags: Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin Gold, Blockchain, Coinbase, Cryptocurrency, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, News Info The Dominance of Men on The Bitcoin Market Worries Some Experts World Bank President Speaks on Blockchain Litecoin, Ripple and Bitcoin Cash: Price Analysis 6 Types of Crypto-currency: The Story of Revolution US Banks Unwilling to Back Crypto Purchases Via Credit Card

Home » Business » ATBCoin settles class action lawsuit for $250,000 A digital currency startup that hailed its blockchain platform as the fastest in the Milky Way has agreed to settle a class action lawsuit. ATBCoin conducted its initial coin offering (ICO) back in 2017, but was soon after sued for issuing an unregistered securities offering. The class action lawsuit has now come to an end, with the company set to part with $250,000 in settlement offer. ATBCoin conducted its ICO between June 12 and September 15, 2017, selling its native ATB Coins. It described the tokens as “an innovative decentralized cryptocurrency incorporating the advanced technologies that tailor the needs of primary market players—users, investors, and business owners.” It claimed that transactions in ATB Coins were fully private, secure and anonymous. The company managed to raise $20 million from its ICO. ATBCoin’s blockchain launched in September, soon after the ICO concluded. However, it was unable to reach the heights it had promised, including being the fastest blockchain platform in the Milky Way. Inevitably, its price started dropping and in a few weeks, it was 85% below its issue price. The investors soon launched a class action lawsuit, led by the lead plaintiff Raymond Balestra. They accused the company of conducting an ICO without registering with the SEC. The case is coming to a close, with Law360 reporting that Balestra has come to an agreement with ATBCoin on behalf of the aggrieved investors. Balestra’s legal team filed the motion for preliminary approval with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The settlement had come after lengthy negotiations between the two parties, the filing claims, stating, “Lead Plaintiff respectfully submits that the Settlement warrants preliminary approval because it is the result of vigorous arms-length negotiations by experienced counsel, representing a favorable recovery that falls well within the range of possible approval.” Investors have continued to step up and sue companies they believe have been issuing or selling unregistered securities. In one of the biggest class action lawsuit yet, a New York law firm recently sued 11 of the largest companies in the digital currencies industry. Roche Cyrulnik Freedman LLP sued Binance, the Tron Foundation, Civic, BitMEX and more, claiming they either issued or traded unregistered securities. New to Bitcoin? Check out CoinGeek’s Bitcoin for Beginners section, the ultimate resource guide to learn more about Bitcoin—as originally envisioned by Satoshi Nakamoto—and blockchain.

Menu Reading About NewsCoinsThe ticking time bomb of ICO class-action suitsBy 5 min readApr 6, 2020Apr 6, 2020ICO class action suits are a time bomb.Richard Levin was right. For years, the fintech attorney and former Wall Street compliance officer has been predicting that class-action suits would be brought against companies and people involved in unregulated initial coin offerings, or ICOs. “We have only likely begun to see the beginning of class-action lawsuits filed relating to blockchain-related companies or companies that participated in ICOs,” he co-wrote in a March 2018. “We believe it is highly likely other issuers of tokens will face class-action lawsuits.”  On Friday, Levin’s prediction came true—in spades: A New York law firm filed against nearly a dozen top crypto companies, including Binance, Bitmex, Civic, and Tron. The suits accuse the companies of issuing or trading unregistered securities in the form of digital tokens. But why did so many suits all hit at one time?  Crypto attorney Richard Levin Levin believes the recent actions were driven mainly by two things—concern over the statute of limitations on the cases and recent regulatory settlements involving ICOs that were deemed sales of unregistered securities.  “You are looking at the statute of limitations. Oftentimes in any action, one question is, when do we have to file by,” Levin told Decrypt on Sunday. “If you look at the amount of capital that was raised in the sale of the digital assets and the number of people that bought them, it creates basically a large pool of potential claimants, which looks similar to a class action.”  (Update: An earlier version of this story stated that there is a two-year statute of limitations on fraud. But Levin clarified with us that “there are different statutes of limitations for different types of securities claims. The SOL is two years for claims of fraud and three years for sales of unregistered securities without an exemption from registration under the Securities Act of 1933.”) In terms of the recent regulatory settlement, specifically, Levin is referring to Block.one, one of the companies targeted in the recent lawsuits. In September, the Cayman Islands-based blockchain firm for conducting an unregistered ICO that raised the equivalent of several billion dollars from mid-2017 to mid-2018.  “While not binding on the court in the class-action, the plaintiffs will argue Block.one sold securities in violation of US securities laws," said Levin.  The lawsuits filed on Friday were hardly the first class-action cases brought against crypto companies. against companies almost as soon as ICOs became a thing in 2017. Tezos, Bitconnect, Centra Tech, and others have been sued. But this recent spate of class-action suits could signal a new open season on many more of the players who got rich during the 2017-18 ICO boom. There's blood in the water. Levin said he’s been reading instances where some people think Friday’s lawsuits will be dismissed quickly. He doesn’t agree. He believes the lawsuits could drag on for years and drain some of these companies of most of the money they raised in their token offerings. “I think there will be a substantial period of litigation,” he said.  Roche Cyrulnik Freedman, a 15-attorney law firm with substantial experience in crypto, filed the suits in a federal district court in New York against 11 companies and 42 defendants. The “litigation boutique” has offices in New York and Miami and is the same firm that a New York federal judge in a bitcoin market manipulation case against Bitfinex and Tether. In the unlikely event that triple damages are awarded, that suit is worth $1.4 trillion.   Levin was not surprised by the barrage of civil suits the firm filed. “Our law firm warned people for several years,” he said. “I’ve been doing blockchain for nine years and I warned people probably going back nine years that most digital assets being issued were going to be deemed securities by the SEC.”   In his blog post two years ago, Levin said that class-action suits were the “new frontier” in the cryptocurrency space. That was about the time regulators were starting to crack down on ICOs, which startups were using to raise hundreds of millions—and in some cases, even in funding.  Levin believes the chance of any of the recent class-action suits getting dismissed is slim. “Dismissal of a case is an extraordinary remedy,” he said. “I don’t believe the court will dismiss the cases, and I also do not believe the courts are going to grant motions for a summary judgment either on behalf of the plaintiffs or the defendants.” Instead, he sees some, if not all, of the cases going to trial before a judge or a jury. That’s not to say issues won’t arise along the way. For one, the dozens of defendants named in the lawsuits are spread out across 16 different countries.  “The location of the company that issued the digital asset will be an issue of dispute,” he said. Also at issue is whether the party sold the digital asset to US citizens and whether the federal court in the US is the proper location for resolution, he said. But ultimately, the lawsuits could take a heavy toll on the companies being sued. “I suspect that issuers of digital assets that raised hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars will be looking at spending a fair amount of their funds on defending these actions,” said Levin. He also believes the lawsuits will “cast a cloud” over all of the digital assets named in the suits going forward. Anyone trading those tokens is now on notice that at least some purchasers believe that they were sold illegal securities—and they were willing to sue for damages.  d>-action-suitsTop stories, original features, rewards & more.Get the best of Decrypt where you want it most.Menu About

A lawsuit filed against Coinbase alleges the money transmitter did not fulfil its regulatory requirements to do its due diligence and investigate Mr. Vernon’s activity and his Coinbase accounts. Also Read: IRS Demands Coinbase Records in Surprise Tax Probe When $8.2 million in customer funds went missing from Cryptsy user accounts in 2014-15, a class action lawsuit was almost immediately launched against the cryptocurrency exchange and wallet service. The law group which spearheaded that suit now has one of the largest bitcoin exchanges in its sights. Silver Law Group and Wites & Kapetan, P.A. yesterday filed a nationwide class action lawsuit in federal court against San Francisco-based Money Services Business and cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Inc. — one of the best recognized brands in the cryptocurrency space — contending the exchange should have known Cryptsy funds held at the exchange were laundered ill-gotten gains. Paul Vernon, former CEO and principal operator of Cryptsy, allegedly liquidated $8.2 million in customer assets to his own benefit through accounts at Coinbase. The lawsuit alleges Coinbase knew that the $8.2 million were Cryptsy revenues which Mr. Vernon himself personally owned, and that Coinbase did not fulfil its regulatory requirements to do its due diligence and investigate Mr. Vernon’s activity and his Coinbase accounts. The lawsuit states more than $8,200,000.00 were laundered through Coinbase and Mr. Vernon is believed to have fled with the money to China in late 2015. The class action lawsuit  in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida (Case No. 9:16-cv-81992) seeks indemnification for all Cryptsy account owners who deposited funds with the exchange, only to lose them to Mr. Vernon’s liquidation of said funds through Coinbase. These users then lost access to their accounts and funds between May 22, 2014 and the present. The lawsuit alleges Coinbase aided and abetted money launder and unjust enrichment by breaching its fiduciary duties. The Receiver/Corporate Monitor the Court appointed to oversee Cryptsy’s assets after Mr. Vernon’s disappearance to China, James D Sallah, Esq., was assigned the responsibility of protecting and retrieving assets belonging to Cryptsy or its customers. Mr. Sallah has now joined the lawsuit, according to the law group’s press release. Delray Beach, Florida-based bitcoin and altcoin exchange Cryptsy unexpectedly shut down in January 2016. Hundreds of users lost millions in cryptocurrency. A class action lawsuit was filed against the company and Mr. Vernon, accusing the operator of stealing or losing at least $5 million in customer funds. Vernon fled to China where his ex-wife said he had an extra-marital girlfriend. Mr. Vernon announced the hack publicly a full year-and-a-half after millions of dollars worth of bitcoin and litecoin had been hacked in July 2014. “The plan was to use a portion of revenue to replenish the wallets. However, diminishing bitcoin price and volume turned out to not go in our favor,” he wrote to New Times. “At the time, I had two choices, disclose and shut down or try to continue running and reacquire user funds. Because we were doing well at the time, I attempted option #2.” The class action lawsuit maintains there was no hack. It claims Mr. Vernon ran off with the money, and that Coinbase should have known. Coinbase made headlines last week when the IRS sought two years worth of consumer data pertaining to bitcoin accounts held on the exchange. Coinbase promised to fight the IRS’ sweeping John Doe Summons in court. What are your thoughts on the Cryptsy debacle? Did you lose any funds? Let us know in the comments below. Images via Shutterstock, Cryptsy, Coinbase Bitcoin.com offers up-to-the-minute charts on bitcoin price and other stats. Our feeds show the bitcoin price index in all three major currencies (USD, CNY, EUR). Also, if you want to dig deeper into how the bitcoin network is performing behind the scenes, check out the statistics page too. https://t.co/lhsBTbpv8p #bch pic.twitter.com/5vE55uBMXo This week, the text messaging platform Cointext announced the public launch of its feature service that allows anyone with a mobile phone to transact with bitcoin cash (BCH) without internet services… read more. https://t.co/vRHIpxTpKd #bitcoinjobs #jobhunt #cryptojobs pic.twitter.com/4gs4muoiiP News.Bitcoin.com is Hiring Editorial Staff – In Tokyo, Stockholm and Your Town. Are you an experienced news editor or a news reporter with a nose for crypto? We are on a roll – increasing our readership every day – serving millions of readers each month… read more. 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SAN FRANCISCO (Heartland Newsfeed) The popular cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase will be facing two new class-action lawsuits in Federal court, one of which accuses the exchange of insider trading. The first suit, filed Thursday, claims that Coinbase employees unfairly profited from the December listing of Bitcoin Cash (BCH), citing that the August spinoff from Bitcoin (BTC) and December 19 trading launch resulted in the price skyrocketing to nearly $1,000. Additionally cited that while this news was a surprise to everyone, the suit states Coinbase employees knew well ahead of time, as well as anyone they may have told, with those insiders unfairly profiting when the price skyrocketed. The lawsuit alleges that when trading began, insiders swamped Coinbases system with buy and sell orders at fair prices and had to suspend BCH trading until the following day to maintain liquidity. When Coinbases customers trades were finally executed, it was only after the insiders had driven up the price of bitcoin cash, and thus the remaining bitcoin customers only received their bitcoin cash at artificially inflated prices that had been manipulated well beyond the fair market value of bitcoin cash at that time, the lawsuit claims. At the time, Coinbase committed to conduct an investigation as to whether any employees acted improperly, something the suit states the company never revealed the results of. BCH is the fourth largest cryptocurrency by market cap, trading at $1,253 on Monday, according to CoinMarketCap, down from its December 20 peak above $4,000. BTC was trading at $11,319 Monday. A second suit, filed Friday, involves two men who were unable to redeem Bitcoin that had been transferred to them and accuses Coinbase of fraudulently keeping funds that non-customers were able to access. The suit claims that when Coinbase members send cryptocurrency to a non-member, they receive an email that gives them no alternative but to open a Coinbase account, in which the pair complains that thousands of people have been cryptocurrency sent to them in such way, but have been unable to redeem the funds they are owed. Coinbase representatives did not immediately comment on either lawsuit. The exchange has experienced a few rough weeks, including the turnover of data of 13,000 users to the Internal Revenue Service as an attempt to see if Bitcoin traders were evading taxes last Tuesday, according to a MarketWatch report. Some Coinbase customers complained in February about getting overcharged for crypto purchases as a result of a systematic glitch that Coinbase attributes to how credit card issuers were processing cryptocurrency charges and fees, with Visa Inc. later stating that the exchange was not at fault. Related

The consolidated class-action lawsuit against the Tezos Foundation appears likely to end in a $25M settlement which might forestall further SEC action. 10422 Total views 123 Total shares Listen to article 0:00 Analysis The Tezos (XTZ) class-action lawsuit from law firm Block & Leviton will likely conclude in a $25-million settlement on August 27. Tezos, like many initial coin offerings () from 2017, has come under scrutiny from both investors and regulators alike alleging that its token sale constituted an illegal offering of securities. Indeed, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has  on numerous 2017-era ICOs demanding penalties for securities violation. Even distributions to non-U.S. citizens have also come under the SEC’s radar, as was the case with Telegram. The SEC has consistently maintained that most ICOs are indeed unlicensed securities offerings despite pushback from stakeholders in the country to exempt a wider range of tokens from securities regulation. With more jurisdictions paying greater attention to crypto-based fundraising, the ICO model appears to be a thing of the past with more focus on regulated token sales. In late October 2017, Block & Leviton revealed that it was opening an investigation into the Tezos ICO for securities fraud. By mid-December of 2017, the Boston-based law firm, which specializes in securities cases, sued the principal actors in the Tezos ICO. By the time Block & Leviton initiated its own legal proceedings, the Tezos Foundation and Dynamic Ledger Solutions — the company created by Tezos co-founder Arthur Breitman — was already the subject of two other lawsuits. In November 2017, cases against Tezos were also filed in Federal District courts in  and respectively. The suit also came amid a power struggle within the project itself. This internal wrangling even affected the release of the XTZ tokens to investors who participated in the $232 million ICO back in July 2017. In early 2018, the SEC  a request for information by the plaintiffs in the Florida case. According to the SEC at the time, the release of such documents could impede any future enforcement activities. The U.S. securities regulator has so far not brought any charges against the principal actors in the Tezos ICO. By August 2018, these lawsuits became consolidated into one case before the Northern District Court of California. As  by Cointelegraph at the time, U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg refused to grant the defendant’s motion to dismiss the case, paving the way for the matter to move forward. With the court refusing to dismiss the case and the lawsuit dragging on for about two years, the Tezos Foundation  its intention to seek a settlement in March 2020. At the time, the Foundation declared that a one-time settlement was preferable to the legal fees associated with a long-drawn-out court battle. At the start of May, Cointelegraph  that the court had granted preliminary approval for a $25-million settlement in the Tezos ICO class-action lawsuit. In an email to Cointelegraph, a spokesperson for the Tezos Foundation commented on the decision to settle the case, stating: Block & Leviton has already  Tezos ICO investors to submit claims to be eligible for a share of the settlement offer. Final arguments on the case will take place in August, at which time the court will determine if $25 million constitutes reasonable restitution for the plaintiffs and if legal fees are covered in the payment. Despite moving to settle the lawsuit, the Tezos Foundation maintains that its 2017 ICO broke no laws, declaring: Cointelegraph also reached out to the legal representatives of both sides of the case but has received no comments as of the time of writing. Aside from putting an end to the consolidated class-action lawsuits, the $25-million settlement could also prevent any future enforcement action by the SEC. Quentin Herbrecht, CEO of blockchain marketing platform Markchain, offered a similar argument in conversation with Cointelegraph. According to Herbrecht: For the Tezos Foundation, the conclusion of the case will give project developers a clearer path towards achieving their stated goals. A spokesperson for the foundation told Cointelegraph: While the Tezos Foundation might escape the SEC, the commission has been going after ICOs, securing millions of dollars in penalties paid by errant projects. In one of the highlights of 2020, , leading to discontinuation of its planned crypto operations after raising over $1.7 billion in a pre-sale back in 2018. For Herbrecht who is also a consultant and project evaluator for the European Union’s Horizon 2020, the issue lies with projects failing to understand American securities regulation, adding: The SEC’s ICO enforcement action has not spared like boxing champion Floyd Mayweather and music producer DJ Khaled, charging both with illegal endorsement activities. Both individuals did eventually see their parts in the matter . However, there is some contention that the SEC’s enforcement action is not the same across the board. Critics of the commission say some projects are forced to pay hefty fines while others get away with only a slap on the wrist. The lack of clarity over how securities law should be applied to ICO tokens is also affecting the American crypto trading scene. Trading platforms in the U.S., wary of running afoul of regulators, are often forced to geofence certain altcoin tokens or create a separate trading arena for their customers stateside. Currently, Congress is considering bills like the  and the . The former seeks to create a provision where altcoin tokens do not fall under securities regulation while also establishing a de minimis tax exemption for crypto gains under a specified threshold. The latter legislative piece aims among other things to divide digital assets into distinct categories as well as the Federal regulatory agencies that will have jurisdiction over each cadre. The seemingly unrelenting actions of the SEC against ICOs has reportedly contributed to the decline of the fundraising method. With regulators across the world insisting on regulated token offerings, startups seem to be pivoting towards equity funding or creating security token offerings (STO). Back in March 2020, Cointelegraph  that ICO fundraising plummeted 95% year-over-year in 2019.

News Aug 2, 2017 | By Sterlin Lujan - | 9895 Coinbase Customers Could Instigate Class Action Lawsuit Over Bitcoin Cash The bitcoin hard fork went off without a hitch, creating bitcoins new alter ego, bitcoin cash. Immediately following yesterdays fork, individuals who protected their private keys gained access to bitcoin cash. However, those who stored their coins on an exchange, left that decision to the exchange. This caused tensions to flare between Coinbase and their customers. They are now angrily requesting their share of bitcoin cash from the company. Also read:Panel Recommends Indian Government Take Immediate Steps to Stop Bitcoin Use Prior to yesterdays chain split, several exchanges publicly stated they would not be providing support for bitcoin cash. Coinbase was one of these exchanges. They provided a FAQ answer page before the split got under way. In regards to bitcoin cash, they said: Coinbase will not support the BCC blockchain or digital currency. Any bitcoin within customers accounts will remain accessible on the main blockchain only. If you wish to have access to both BTC and BCC, please be sure to send your BTC off the platform by July 31. After the split occurred, everyone who had moved their funds off of Coinbase and maintained their private keys, got awarded with an amount of bitcoin cash equivalent to their bitcoin legacy holdings. Coinbase Customers Believe They are Entitled to Bitcoin Cash Even though Coinbase said they will not support bitcoin cash, their customers still believe they are entitled to it. They have been posting angry and accusatory messages on Coinbase forums. One legal scholar, Tim Wu, pointed out that Coinbase could be in serious legal trouble if they do not hand over the bitcoin cash. He tweeted, In my opinion,@coinbaseis courting serious, maybe ruinous legal trouble if it doesnt give its users the full value of the Bitcoin fork. He also analogized the situation to a brokerage firm not giving stock splits to their customers. Wu believes that even Coinbases terms of service agreement will not save them. He implies they are obligated to do the right thing and hand over the bitcoin cash. Imagine a stock split where the broker declined to issue the new stock to its owners that the @coincase position right now Tim Wu (@superwuster) July 30, 2017 Coinbase Customers Legal Website Portal There is even a website already set up for Coinbase customers to organize. It is the Coinbase Bitcoin Cash Lawsuit Portal. The site was apparently created to bring Coinbase customers together and initiate the start of legal proceedings. The site reads: Our ultimate aim is work with Coinbase, Inc to help them understand the user communitys concerns and take the correct and appropriate action of allowing users to trade or withdraw the Bitcoin Cash tokens that rightfully belong to them following the 8/1/2017 Bitcoin hard fork. However, Coinbase needs to understand that the community is ready and willing to pursue legal action if their BCH tokens continue to be withheld by Coinbase Inc, resulting in tangible and significant financial loss. Needless to say, Coinbase will have ample pressure applied to them regarding the bitcoin cash debacle, which could escalate into a burdensome and pricey legal affair. Ethereum Split; Coinbase Has Not Commented on the Situation Still, Coinbase may give into the pressure. This kind of situation has happened before. When Ethereum split last year into Ethereum Classic, Coinbase decided to give their customer base access to the currency. It took some time, though. A similar scenario could play out and Coinbase could finally hand over the bitcoin cash.At this time, however, it does not appear Coinbase has remarked on the situation. Do you think Coinbase with capitulate with demands for bitcoin cash from their customers? Will a class action lawsuit take place? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock and Coinbase.com The Bitcoin universe is vast. So is Bitcoin.com. Check our Wiki, where you can learn everything you were afraid to ask. Or read our news coverage to stay up to date on the latest. Or delve into statistics on our helpful tools page. TAGSbitcoin cashclass action suitCoinbasecoinbase lawsuitCoinbase Legal PortalCryptocurrencyEthereumEthereum ClassicEthereum ForkHard ForkLawsuitN-BitcoinTim WuUAFH SHARE Facebook Twitter Sterlin LujanSterlin Lujan is a journalist, editor, speaker, anarchist, and essayist. He has been involved with cryptocurrency and Bitcoin since 2012. Sterlin is especially interested in the intersection of psychology and cryptography. He has written on behavioral economics in regards to innovative technology, and was one of the first to write about the emerging field of cryptopsychology on bitcoin.com. in case you missed ithttps://t.co/c169iwx8Ts ping @bitboxearth #hackathon pic.twitter.com/GDUGdRk1oH Bitcoin News (@BTCTN) April 21, 2018 Bitbox Project Hosts Two Bitcoin Cash Hackathons. Over the next thirty days, Bitbox is hosting two BCH-centric hackathons that aim to bring the bitcoin cash development community together to build innovative applications using the decentralized network read more. Your Ad Here Sign up for the Bitcoin.com Newsletter .headline-side { margin-top: 0px; } .btn.btn-lg.btn-side{ background-color:#fff; margin-bottom:12px; transition: background-color 0.25s linear; } .btn.btn-lg.btn-side:hover{ background-color:#fab915; } .side-subscribe { background-color:#f6f6f6; padding: 20px; border-radius: 4px; border: 2px solid #fab915; } Bitcoin News delivered to you! 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Apr 21, 2018 Submit a Press Release Latest Comments Larry With all this money spent on promoting another coin, with it's regulation bodies, and promotionals... Five Reasons Why Bitcoin Cash is About to Win Big Apr 22, 2018 Max The Future bitcoin does not require a cash and to cash conversion to fiat is temporary measure No, Visa Doesnt Handle 24,000 TPS and Neither Does Your Pet Blockchain Apr 22, 2018 Dries Dries Shame dude. Save your writing career before it's too late. Five Reasons Why Bitcoin Cash is About to Win Big Apr 22, 2018 Nanotroll 2 IRONICALLY, the whole point of Cryptocurrency was ANNONYMITY. How does coinbase even know who... Wikileaks Calls for Global Blockade of Coinbase After Its Store Was Blocked Apr 22, 2018 Nanotroll 2 This is how the IMF and Banking Cartels control you. Wikileaks Calls for Global Blockade of Coinbase After Its Store Was Blocked Apr 22, 2018 we are hiringhttps://t.co/vRHIpxTpKd #bitcoinjobs #jobhunt #cryptojobs pic.twitter.com/4gs4muoiiP Bitcoin News (@BTCTN) March 26, 2018 News.Bitcoin.com is Hiring Editorial Staff In Tokyo, Stockholm and Your Town. Are you an experienced news editor or a news reporter with a nose for crypto? We are on a roll increasing our readership every day serving millions of readers each monthread more. Did You Miss The Tokyo Conference? Watch the talks from the Satoshis Vision Conference, that took place in Tokyo, March 23-25. Listen to The Bitcoin.com Podcast NetworkAvailable for Android and iOS: Try out the new Bitcoin.com Mobile WalletCheck out all the latest features and create your wallet today! https://t.co/CNaJZzHtaZ pic.twitter.com/huq84amUJG Bitcoin News (@BTCTN) April 10, 2018 Download the Bitcoin.com Wallet right to your device for easy and secure access to your bitcoins. Perfect for beginners, the Bitcoin.com Wallet makes using and holding bitcoins easy. No logins required. LOST ON FACEBOOK? Facebook has recently made some changes to show you less news and more family-oriented pics and videos even though youve previously subscribed. Heres how to make Facebook show you our content again; Facebook has recently made some changes to show you less news. Heres how to make Facebook show you our content again; a. Visit our Facebook Page https://t.co/d5QIuhCFPt b. Click the Follow button under our cover image. c. Select the See first option. pic.twitter.com/tFmrF73WQ7 Bitcoin News (@BTCTN) February 19, 2018 1. Visit the Bitcoin.com Facebook Page. 2. Click the Follow button under our cover image. 3. Select the See first option. Get the latest price charts, statistics and our news feed on your site. Check out our widget services. 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