Bloomberg Law
Dec. 30, 2020, 9:30 PM

Coinbase Sued Over XRP Commissions After SEC Pursues Ripple

Joel Rosenblatt
Joel Rosenblatt
Bloomberg News
Olga Kharif
Olga Kharif
Bloomberg News

Coinbase Inc. knew cryptocurrency XRP was a security rather than a commodity and “illegally” sold Ripple Labs Inc.’s tokens anyway, a customer argues in a proposed class-action lawsuit over the commissions the crypto exchange collected.

Coinbase said this week it will stop selling XRP to the public after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued Ripple, alleging it misled investors by selling more than $1 billion of the virtual tokens for the world’s third-largest cryptocurrency without registering with the agency. Other exchanges are also suspending XRP sales to U.S. customers.

The lawsuit comes about two weeks after Coinbase, the ...