Coinbase and several top executives were hit with a securities class-action suit Thursday over the company's direct listing on the Nasdaq.
The suit, filed by Scott + Scott in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, accuses Coinbase insiders of misleading investors regarding the company's financial health and the resiliency of its cryptocurrency trading platform.
The suit brings claims against several Coinbase officers and directors, including Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal, and its venture capital backers.
The suit, which makes claims under the Securities Act of 1933, was filed on behalf of those who invested in Coinbase when it went public on April 14.
Coinbase "powers the cryptoeconomy," offering a "trusted platform" for sending and receiving Bitcoin and other digital assets built using blockchain technology to approximately 43 million retail users, 7,000 institutions, and 115,000 ecosystem partners in over 100 countries, the suit states.
For institutions, the suit states, "Coinbase offers 'hedge funds, money managers, and corporations, a one-stop shop for accessing crypto markets through advanced trading and custody technology, built on top of a robust security infrastructure[,]' and "a state of the art marketplace with a deep pool of liquidity transacting in crypto assets.'"
The suit maintains that Coinbase's offering materials were false and misleading and omitted:
- The company required a sizeable cash injection;
- The company's platform was susceptible to service-level disruptions, which were increasingly likely to occur as the company scaled its services to a larger user base; and
- Defendants' positive statements about the company's business, operations, and prospects, were materially misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis.
"As a result of Defendants' wrongful acts and omissions, and the precipitous decline in the market value of the Company's securities, Plaintiff and other Class members have suffered significant losses and damages," the suit states.
