Former Coinbase manager slams SEC in motion to dismiss insider trading case

cointelegraph.com:

A former product manager at cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has moved to dismiss charges of alleged insider trading, with his lawyers arguing the tokens he allegedly traded were not securities.

Lawyers representing ex-Coinbase employee, Ishan Wahi, and his brother, Nikhil Wahi, filed a motion on Feb. 6 in the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington to dismiss charges laid b the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

In July last year, the SEC charged the brothers and their associate, Sameer Ramani, with insider trading alleging the trio made $1.1 million using Ishan’s tips on the timing and names of tokens in upcoming Coinbase listings.

In an over 80-page document, the lawyers outlined how the SEC was “wrong” in its charges.

They argued the cryptocurrencies allegedly traded by the Wahi’s did not fit the legal definition of a security as they had no “investment contract [...] Written or implied” and compared them instead to baseball trading cards and beanie babies.

They backed their argument further saying token developers have “no obligations whatsoever” to buyers on the secondary markets, adding:

The tokens, the lawyers argued, were also all utility tokens and emphasized their primary use is on a platform rather than used as an investment product.

The Wahi brothers and Ramani purportedly purchased at least 25 cryptocurrencies before the Coinbase listings — of which at least nine the SEC asserts to be securities — before selling them for a profit shortly after their listing.

The Wahi’s lawyers lambasted the SEC for its apparent attempt at “trying to seize broad regulatory jurisdiction over a massive new industry via an enforcement action.”

They said the regulator “lacks clear congressional