15 months after the civil action filed by the SEC on June 6, 2023, accusing Coinbase of operating an unregistered securities exchange, U.S. District Judge Brian Martinotti in Newark, New Jersey, issued his decision last Thursday.

The judge said that the shareholders adequately alleged that Coinbase and senior management deceived them by describing “a favorable picture of the improbability of the SEC introducing enforcement action by repeatedly stressing that the cryptoassets they listed were not securities.” He rejected allegations that Coinbase had falsely denied engaging in proprietary trading. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and several other executives are also being charged