On April 12, 2022, a Twitter account that is well known in the crypto community tweeted regarding an Ethereum blockchain wallet “that bought hundreds of thousands of dollars of tokens exclusively featured in the Coinbase Asset Listing post about 24 hours before it was published.” The trading activity referenced in the April 12 tweet was trading previously conducted by Ramani based on tips provided by WAHI. Following Coinbase’s public listing announcements, on multiple occasions, Nikhil Wahi and Ramani sold the crypto assets for a profit. On multiple occasions between June 2021 and April 2022, WAHI violated his duties of trust and confidence to Coinbase by providing confidential business information that he learned in connection with his employment at Coinbase to Nikhil Wahi and Sameer Ramani so that they could secretly engage in profitable trades around public announcements by Coinbase that it would be listing certain crypto assets on Coinbase’s exchanges. In that role, WAHI was involved in the highly confidential process of listing crypto assets on Coinbase’s exchanges and had detailed and advanced knowledge of which crypto assets Coinbase was planning to list and the timing of public announcements about those crypto asset listings. Accordingly, Coinbase kept such information strictly confidential and prohibited its employees from sharing that information with others, including by providing a “tip” to any person who might trade based on that information.īeginning in approximately October 2020, ISHAN WAHI worked at Coinbase as a product manager assigned to a Coinbase asset listing team.
Periodically, Coinbase added new crypto assets to those that could be traded through its exchange, and the market value of crypto assets typically significantly increased after Coinbase announced that it would be listing a particular crypto asset. Coinbase users could acquire, exchange, and sell various crypto assets through online user accounts with Coinbase. The Southern District of New York has decades of experience pursuing insider trading cases, and we will continue to use our expertise to prosecute this crime no matter what form it takes and where it occurs.”Īccording to the allegations in the Indictment and statements made in public court proceedings:Īt all relevant times, Coinbase was one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world. Whether it occurs in the equity markets or the crypto markets, stealing confidential business information for your own personal profit or the profit of others is a serious federal crime. Wahi is the first insider to admit guilt in an insider trading case involving the cryptocurrency markets. Attorney Damian Williams said: “Ishan Wahi – a former Coinbase product manager – admitted in court today that he tipped others regarding Coinbase’s planned token listings so that they could trade in crypto assets for a profit. WAHI was arrested and charged in July 2022 and pled guilty earlier today before U.S. (“Coinbase”), pled guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with a scheme to commit insider trading in cryptocurrency assets by using confidential Coinbase information about which crypto assets were scheduled to be listed on Coinbase’s exchanges. Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced today that ISHAN WAHI, a former product manager at Coinbase Global, Inc.
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