On May 30, 2023, the SEC announced that former Coinbase product manager Ishan Wahi and his brother, Nikhil Wahi, agreed to settle charges with the SEC that they engaged in insider trading by purchasing certain Ethereum tokens, including TRIBE, XYO, ALCX, POWR, and GALA (which can be used to acquire non-fungible tokens (NFTs) within a gaming network), ahead of announcements that the these crypto-asset securities would be made available for trading on the Coinbase platform. The court approved both the Ishan Wahi and the Nikhil Wahi on June 1, 2023.

The SEC's civil complaint, filed on July 21, 2022, in the US District Court for the Western District of Washington, alleged that, while employed at Coinbase, Ishan Wahi helped to coordinate the platform’s public listing announcements, which included what crypto assets would be made available for trading. According to the complaint, Coinbase treated such public listing information as confidential and warned its employees not to trade based on, or tip others with, that information since those Coinbase announcements usually resulted in price increases (see Legal Update, Updated: DOJ and SEC File First Crypto Insider Trading Actions: Coinbase Insider Trading Case).

The civil complaint alleged that from at least June 2021 to April 2022, Ishan Wahi repeatedly tipped the timing and content of upcoming crypto-asset listing announcements to his brother, Nikhil Wahi, and his friend, Sameer Ramani. According to the SEC, Nikhil Wahi and Ramani allegedly purchased at least 25 crypto assets, at least nine of which were securities, then typically sold them shortly after the Coinbase listing announcements for a profit. Samer Ramani is also a defendant in the SEC civil action but has not settled with the SEC.

Under consents filed by the Wahi brothers with the court on May 30, 2022, the Wahi brothers did not to deny the SEC’s allegations and have consented to the entry of final judgments that permanently enjoin them from violating Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (Exchange Act) (15 U.S.C. § 78j(b)) and Rule 10b-5 (17 C.F.R. § 240.10b-5).

The US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York had previously obtained two separate guilty pleas from the Wahi brothers in connection with this insider trading matter (see Legal Update, Updated: DOJ and SEC File First Crypto Insider Trading Actions: Coinbase Insider Trading Case):