A federal judge ruled Coinbase is not liable for 99.97% of trading volume in a lawsuit over unregistered securities sales.
A U.S. federal judge dismissed the majority of a lawsuit accusing Coinbase of illegally selling unregistered securities. The ruling covers 99.97% of trading volume, equivalent to hundreds of billions of dollars, where the exchange matched customer buy and sell orders.
Customers had sued over 60 tokens, including XRP and dogecoin, alleging they were unregistered securities. The judge allowed claims to proceed only for “inventory” transactions, which accounted for at least $178 million in sales.
The decision hinged on whether Coinbase qualified as a statutory seller under federal and state securities laws. The judge ruled it did not for matched transactions, as ownership was not transferred by the exchange.