News of the weirdly timed purchases quickly spurred unsavory accusations against Coinbase—something the company has dealt with before. “This is blatant corruption and insider trading. Yet the SEC won’t do shit about this,” claimed one person on Reddit. “This is why we can’t have nice things.”
“CoinBase insider trading shitcoins – nothing new, but extremely important to talk about,” tweeted another person.
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Despite all of the outrage, it’s not at all clear who the suspicious wallet belongs to or where they received the information for their recent purchases. We reached out to Coinbase for comment and will update our story if they respond.
This isn’t the first time the crypto community has grappled with the prospect of unsavory investment timing. Last summer, the head of product at crypto market OpenSea, Nate Chastain, was caught investing in NFT offerings before they were featured on the company’s website. Investigation found that Chastain had made a modest profit from his purchases, and he was accused of NFT “insider trading.” As a result of the incident, OpenSea later adjusted its rules to bar employee investments in assets prior to their public release.
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