Der CEO von Coinbase verkaufte Unternehmensanteile im Vorfeld einer SEC-Beschwerde
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong Sells Company Shares Ahead of SEC Lawsuit
The stock of Coinbase Global Inc was hit hard this week after the SEC filed a lawsuit against the crypto exchange. However, for CEO Brian Armstrong, the sell-off was comparatively less damaging.
Reports suggest that the chairman sold a total of 29,730 shares of the company one day before the SEC complaint, prompting many to question whether this had anything to do with insider trading.
According to Eleanor Terret, a journalist at Fox Business, however, it was a completely legal sale, as it had already been planned before Coinbase was served a „Wells Notice“. Her recent tweet reads: „According to the SEC filing database, this was part of a pre-planned stock sale initiated in August 2022 that was to comply with Rule 10b5-1(c).“
The SEC lawsuit led to an increase in Ethereum withdrawals from Coinbase this week.
However, Terret’s explanation was not enough to satisfy everyone in the crypto community. Some still see the sale of shares as at least a lack of loyalty or trust by CEO Armstrong. David Orr, a Twitter user, wrote on the social platform: „It is a pretty easy process to cancel/terminate a 10b5 plan. Given his PR campaign of calling himself and Coinbase the saviours of cryptocurrencies, the optics here are terrible.“
It remains to be seen whether such comments will prompt Coinbase’s CEO to adjust the schedule of his future stock sales. Compared to their previous year’s high, Coinbase shares are currently down about 35%.
