Coinbase’s Ex-product Manager Charged With Crypto Insider Trading

CNN Business reports that on Thursday, the United States Department of Justice charged a former Coinbase manager with insider trading in the first case of its kind. The defendant, identified as Ishan Wahi, is accused of profiting off of confidential information he obtained from his position in the crypto investing and exchange market.

Apart from Wahi, two other people are believed to have cooperated in committing the fraud, one of whom is Ishan’s brother, Nikhil Wahi, and the other one their mutual friend, Sameer Ramani. The so-called sensitive information Ishan Wahi disclosed were in regards to forthcoming announcements of new cryptocurrency assets Coinbase would enable its consumers to trade on the platform.

Prosecutors claim that from June 2021 to April 2022, Nikhil Wahi and Ramani traded at least 14 times before Coinbase’s announcements, and made at least $1.5 million in illegal profits. Allegedly, the trading was done using Ethereum blockchain wallets, a process that differs from how Bitcoin works.

The latest information regarding this case is that both Ishan and Nikhil Wahi were arrested on Thursday in Seattle, and are expected to appear in federal court shortly after the arrest.