In 2016, Sky Eye Law Firm — on behalf of a group of victims — commenced against California-based Money Services Business and cryptocurrency exchange operator Coinbase, Inc. a class action lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida in which we alleged that Coinbase knowingly served as a conduit for laundering millions of dollars of funds that were stolen from account holders at Florida-based cryptocurrency exchange Cryptsy. After we defeated Coinbase’s efforts to have the lawsuit shifted to a private arbitration forum rather than the public forum that the U.S. courts provide — and defeated a subsequent appeal Coinbase filed — the case was publicly litigated; and we ultimately obtained for the class of victims a settlement payment from Coinbase of nearly One Million Dollars ($1,000,000.00). Our success in that case was widely reported not only as the only class action lawsuit against Coinbase that was certified by a U.S. court but also as a tremendous victory for the cryptocurrency investors who were harmed by the conduct alleged in the lawsuit.
Following the conclusion of that class action lawsuit, Sky Eye Law Firm has actively investigated and prosecuted numerous customer claims arising from several ongoing problems and suspicious activities occurring at Coinbase, including the following:
- Security Flaws, Data Breaches, and Theft of Account Holder Assets: Security breaches at Coinbase have caused extensive information about Coinbase customers to be leaked to criminal actors, including personal identifying information that Coinbase had compiled about its account holders. Among the information exposed is e-mail addresses, passwords, and phone numbers associated with Coinbase customers’ accounts. Criminal actors are freely trading and selling that information and are using it to undertake SIM hacks on cellphone users and steal the crypto assets those users have in their Coinbase accounts. This information is being used at a dangerous convergence between the areas of data breaches, identity theft, and crypto theft. Any one of those areas can be damaging to a victim; when all three combine at one juncture, the harm that flows from that convergence can be devastating.
- Unexplained and Unwarranted Account Freezes/Inability to Access an Account: Many Coinbase customers have reported an inability to access their accounts despite complying with all Coinbase security and verification protocols. As a result of such account lockouts, customers are unable to manage their holdings and protect themselves in the always-volatile world of cryptocurrency.
- Undelivered/Unclaimed Funds: Several Coinbase users have complained of sending cryptocurrency to non-Coinbase users via email, having those deliveries either fail or wind up going unclaimed, but not being advised by Coinbase that the transmittals did not reach their intended destinations and not having the undelivered/unclaimed cryptocurrency returned to them. Likewise, users have complained of depositing at Coinbase cryptocurrencies that Coinbase claims to not support yet which Coinbase refuses to return to the user. In both scenarios, Coinbase has allegedly kept those unclaimed or purportedly unsupported funds for itself, which many critics believe represents an unlawful or unfair business practice.
- Platform Breakdowns: Delayed trades and failed purchase orders can cause account holders not only undue worry but also significant investment loss. Because cryptocurrency prices fluctuate so frequently, timeliness of executing trading orders is key for a well-run exchange; and any lack of timeliness can prove harmful to an investor.
If you have lost cryptocurrency assets or money at Coinbase, have been prevented from adequately managing your account holdings, or are concerned about activity you deem to be suspicious or unexplainable, please contact us with information about your claim and your investment losses.
