It appears to be a season of lawsuits. From Ripple Inc. and its executives to Stefan Qin, lawsuits have been flying all around the crypto space. Coinbase is the latest organization to be hit with a lawsuit. But this time, it is not from the U.S. watchdog (SEC). It is a class-action lawsuit against Coinbase for illegally selling XRP tokens.
The class action against Coinbase is coming barely 24 hours after the firm announced that it was delisting XRP in January.
According to the plaintiff, Thomas Sandoval, he claims that the San Francisco-based exchange had knowledge of XRP’s classification as a security under federal laws but still went ahead to list the token and charge customers commissions from trades.
It should be recalled that the price of XRP surged in 2018 following rumors of a Coinbase listing. The asset was however not listed until February 2019. Sandoval claims that Coinbase gained “an unwarranted competitive advantage” over other exchanges that sold only commodities.
In his complaint, Sandoval demands three reliefs, one of which reads:
A judgment requiring Defendant to pay compensatory damages as required by law, as well as reasonable attorneys’ fees and cost of suit.