Coinbase Insiders Sued for Dumping Stock, Saving $1 Billion

May 2, 2023 thejournalbiz

Stock dumping before the plunge, suspected at Coinbase

Coinbase’s CEO Brian Armstrong, board member Marc Andreessen, and other officers avoided more than $1 billion in losses by using inside information to sell stock within days of the cryptocurrency platform’s public listing two years ago, before bad news sent the share price tumbling, according to a lawsuit filed by an investor.

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Coinbase Insiders Sued for Dumping Stock, Saving $1 Billion!#coinbase #Crypto pic.twitter.com/F1xYBRqsRj

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Coinbase stock dumping before the collapse

The company’s board deployed a so-called direct listing instead of a more typical initial public offering and rapidly sold off $2.9 billion in stock before Coinbase management later revealed “material, negative information that destroyed market optimism from the company’s first quarterly earnings release forward,” according to the complaint unsealed Monday in Delaware Chancery Court.

“Within five weeks, those shares declined in value by over $1 billion, and Coinbase’s market capitalization plummeted by more than $37 billion,” claimed the investor, Adam Grabski, who said he’s held Coinbase shares since April 2021.

According to the complaint, Armstrong sold $291.8 million of Coinbase stock as part of the direct listing, while Andreessen’s venture capital firm, Andreessen Horowitz, dumped $118.6 million worth of the stock.