Coinbase is one of the biggest names when it comes to the world of cryptocurrencies. It is the largest name in the US when it comes to market capitalization of cryptocurrency exchanges. However, Coinbase continues to be haunted by the insider trading allegations made against them in December 2017. A recent internal investigation conducted by them reports that there was no insider trading that took place.

Late last year, Coinbase added Bitcoin Cash to their list of cryptocurrencies. Any time a cryptocurrency is added to a major cryptocurrency exchange, there is a spike in the price and the trade volume. However, while the markets anticipated this listing to take place on January 1st, Coinbase decided to abruptly introduce Bitcoin Cash on their platform on the 20th of December. 

What surrounds the addition of this currency is rather shady. On 20th of December, the price of Bitcoin Cash began to rise slowly as some South Korean buyers were reportedly buying it in large numbers. Following that, BCH was listed on Coinbase and GDAX platforms - which led to these investors who bought it at a very cheap price almost double their BCH investment. It is this series of events that lead to the suspicions and allegations of insider trading by Coinbase.

Interestingly, in July last year, Coinbase had stated that they would not support Bitcoin Cash. However, once the currency came into being, they said that they will support it partially. This stance eased over the months - and it was widely expected the company would soon be listing BCH. On the 20th of December, however, Coinbase made a surprise announcement that Bitcoin Cash is being listed on their platforms. 

Coinbase, after this incident, had hired two “well known national law firms” to look into the matter. They had claimed in the past that if anything were to be found, strict actions would be taken against any employees guilty of violating their internal policies. However, now that the investigation has come to a close, Coinbase said in a statement to Fortune, saying: 

“We would not hesitate to terminate an employee or contractor and/or take appropriate legal action if evidence showed our policies were violated. We can report that the voluntary, independent internal investigation has come to a close, and we have determined to take no disciplinary action.” 

Looking Forward

The company has been on an expansion spree of late and has been starting off with a number of new services as well as hiring many top names. Over the past few months, Coinbase hired a new CTO Balaji Srinivasan, who joined the company following the acquisition of Earn.com - moreover, this was followed by the appointment of Alesia Haas as their first-ever CFO. 

Coinbase has also introduced a number of tools for high-end investors such as cryptocurrency storage services. The company is also focusing on institutional investors and has launched a set of tools dedicated for the use of these investors. Coinbase, more recently, has formed a Political Action Committee (PAC) too. 

Finally, Coinbase has now become the first crypto-related company which is allowed to advertise on Facebook and Instagram after the social media giant relaxed its ad policy. This has sparked off a number of speculations that Facebook might be planning to acquire Coinbase. It would be interesting to see what the future holds for Coinbase.