Coinbase Customers Refuse to Share Account Info in Lawsuit

Coinbase customers, who had previously sued the crypto exchange over unauthorized crypto transfers, have continued to hold back their account information in a bid to block efforts to move their case to arbitration.

A renewed emergency motion filed in federal court revealed that the plaintiffs agreed to provide the necessary information encompassing emails, usernames, and Ethereum addresses, in exchange for a protective order.

• According to the filing with the US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, the plaintiff alleged that $6,000 worth of cryptocurrency was drained from his wallet to an address he had never interacted with before with Coinbase facilitating the breach of his account. The filing also showed that the hackers managed to withdraw $1,000 from his bank account.
• The San Francisco-based crypto exchange, however, maintained that the users did not agree on whether to include a provision in the protective order that says Coinbase hasn’t relinquished its right to arbitrate the dispute.
• With the lack of users’ account information, Coinbase claimed that it is not able to match plaintiffs to their respective arbitration agreements.
• In its emergency motion last month, the company stated,

“Refusal to provide this basic information is an improper attempt to undermine Coinbase’s right to compel arbitration under the Federal Arbitration Act.”

• In August, a group of crypto investors brought a lawsuit against Coinbase, alleging it for having lax security systems that exposed user accounts to hackers.
• Led by Georgia resident George Kattula, over 100 Coinbase users sued the trading platform for arbitrarily locking them out from accessing their accounts and funds, thereby blocking them from offloading underperforming tokens. This allegedly led to financial losses, read to the filing.
• From unlicensed crypto asset sales to “materially making false and misleading statements” and more, Coinbase has faced several lawsuits this past year.