Live data from Hacker News

Former Coinbase PM charged in cryptocurrency insider trading tipping scheme

justice.gov

71–80 of 446 posts

Re: Former Coinbase PM charged in cryptocurrency insider trading tipping scheme

#71
post #24

Didn’t a handful of Coinbase employees make out like bandits before Ethereum was listed? What’s changed since then?

Given the article explicitly covers the topic of an employee exploiting prior knowledge of what coins were going to be listed and when - clear the investigators were aware of the potential for this; if others were doing it, they must have done it in a way that was not obvious.

If you have specific verifiable information, hire an attorney and use them to file a SEC whistleblower report. If your evidence leads to enforcement actions that are subject to their jurisdiction and the fines collected are over one million, you will anonymously get 10-30% of the fines they collect.

Re: Former Coinbase PM charged in cryptocurrency insider trading tipping scheme

#72
post #44

Unpopular opinion incoming: the concept of insider trading is stupid, and even more stupid applied to cryptocurrency. People will always find ways to profit from privileged information. The least careful ones will just keep getting caught while the most careful reap the rewards and get away with it. Cryptocurrency isn't even a regulated asset, how can someone be 'insider trading' it? What insider trading really means…

>Apparently it's legal for Congress to insider trade. It's legal for CEOs to insider trade. I'm pretty sure it isn't.

https://nypost.com/2022/07/16/paul-pelosi-buys-tech-chip-sto...

Re: Former Coinbase PM charged in cryptocurrency insider trading tipping scheme

#73
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By this same logic, fraud shouldn't be a crime. People will always find a way to profit by misleading people, and the most careful ones will reap the rewards and get away with it.

Knowing privileged info and acting on it as an individual is not he same as intentionally misleading another person.

In a market that promises information symmetry, there’s no difference between the two.

Re: Former Coinbase PM charged in cryptocurrency insider trading tipping scheme

#74

Unpopular opinion incoming: the concept of insider trading is stupid, and even more stupid applied to cryptocurrency. People will always find ways to profit from privileged information. The least careful ones will just keep getting caught while the most careful reap the rewards and get away with it. Cryptocurrency isn't even a regulated asset, how can someone be 'insider trading' it? What insider trading really means…

No, insider trading is clearly not 'a middle class person profiting in a way the ruling class don't like' - it's using information you have that most of the market doesn't in order to take money from them. The answer to wealthy people being able to get away with insider trading easier is not to throw the baby out with the bathwater and say that all insider trading is fine, it's to actually enforce insider trading law…

Insider trading laws don't mean anything. Person X can send encrypted messages to person Y who lives half way around the world to make a trade and they will be near impossible to discover unless person X is surveilled. Even then, person Y can just get away with it.

Re: Former Coinbase PM charged in cryptocurrency insider trading tipping scheme

#75

There's been a lot of shakedowns and refurnishings in the crypto landscape lately. The US seems to catch or point fingers at people left and right. Why is this happening now all of a sudden?

> Why is this happening now all of a sudden?

While the irrational exuberance is in full swing no one cares about fraud, they just want to keep the cash flowing. Once the crash starts that's when suddenly all that bad behavior gets put in the spotlight.

Re: Former Coinbase PM charged in cryptocurrency insider trading tipping scheme

#76

Wow, the indictment references [this tweet][1] that caused Coinbase to investigate the matter and ultimately led the defendant in being caught at the airport before trying to leave the country. > On May 11, 2022, Coinbase’s director of security operations emailed ISHAN WAHI to inform him that he should appear for an in-person meeting relating to Coinbase’s asset listing process at Coinbase’s Seattle, Washington offic…

Wow, not that I would ever do anything like this… but if I was accused of such a thing the last thing I would do is book a flight for tomorrow.

Re: Former Coinbase PM charged in cryptocurrency insider trading tipping scheme

#77

It talks volumes about the internal controls at CB that it took a tweet to expose this. Given the speed with which they grew last two years I expect their financial and security processes to be next to nothing. This is just tip of an iceberg. Insiders would have made tens of millions over last two years of bull run, if not more. This dude just got greedy and unlucky to get caught just as the crypto bubble began burst…

Precisely. This was one actor; it beggars belief to expect that his is the only (much less largest) instance of insider trading at these firms.

Re: Former Coinbase PM charged in cryptocurrency insider trading tipping scheme

#78

Unpopular opinion incoming: the concept of insider trading is stupid, and even more stupid applied to cryptocurrency. People will always find ways to profit from privileged information. The least careful ones will just keep getting caught while the most careful reap the rewards and get away with it. Cryptocurrency isn't even a regulated asset, how can someone be 'insider trading' it? What insider trading really means…

This is a psycho take. We banned insider trading. Allowing insider trading would obviously help the ruling class. CEOs cannot insider trade. And obviously we should just ban congress to trade stocks.

Re: Former Coinbase PM charged in cryptocurrency insider trading tipping scheme

#79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, insider trading is clearly not 'a middle class person profiting in a way the ruling class don't like' - it's using information you have that most of the market doesn't in order to take money from them. The answer to wealthy people being able to get away with insider trading easier is not to throw the baby out with the bathwater and say that all insider trading is fine, it's to actually enforce insider trading law…

Insider trading laws don't mean anything. Person X can send encrypted messages to person Y who lives half way around the world to make a trade and they will be near impossible to discover unless person X is surveilled. Even then, person Y can just get away with it.

Just because you can get away with a crime doesnt mean its not a real crime

Re: Former Coinbase PM charged in cryptocurrency insider trading tipping scheme

#80
post #65
post #38

Note that they were charged for wire fraud and wire fraud conspiracy. So not for actual Section 10(b) violations, aka insider trading.

Curious about what would have happened had the protagonist managed to board the flight to India and get there ? Would the SEC and Coinbase been able to extradite or do anything then ?

No post body was provided.
Post reply on HN