On May 26, 2025, according to The Block, the cryptocurrency trading platform Coinbase was subject to a class-action lawsuit by shareholders due to the recent decline in its share price. The following is the specific situation:
The reason for the lawsuit: Investor Brady Nessler filed a class-action lawsuit in the Eastern District Court of Pennsylvania, the United States, claiming that the shareholders of Coinbase “suffered significant losses and damages”. The lawsuit alleges that the trading platform failed to disclose in a timely manner a user data breach that occurred earlier this month and that it violated an agreement reached with the UK regulatory authority.
Data Breach: On May 15, 2025, Coinbase disclosed a data breach. Hackers stole the sensitive information of nearly 100,000 users by bribing overseas customer service staff and demanded a ransom of 20 million US dollars. After the incident was exposed, Coinbase’s share price plunged by 7.2% in a single day, with its market value evaporating by more than 5 billion US dollars. Nasdaq suspended its assessment process for inclusion in the S&P 500 index.
Coinbase estimates the company’s loss: Coinbase estimates that the cost of resolving this data breach and compensating affected customers could be between 180 million and 400 million US dollars.
The alleged “omission of information disclosure”: The lawsuit document lists a long list of so-called “omissions of information disclosure” that the company has committed over the past few years. For instance, the lawsuit claims that Coinbase failed to truthfully disclose that its British subsidiary CB Payments violated the agreement signed with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) of the United Kingdom in 2020.
The people involved: Coinbase’s CEO Brian Armstrong and chief Financial Officer Alessia Haas were also listed as defendants.
Scope of the lawsuit: This class action lawsuit aims to recover losses on behalf of investors who purchased Coinbase stocks between April 14, 2021 and May 14, 2025.
So far, Coinbase has not issued a public statement regarding this lawsuit.
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