Overview
On April 18, 2025, Cohen Milstein and Keller Rohrback, on behalf of the Attorney General for the State of Oregon, filed an enforcement action against Coinbase Global, Inc. and Coinbase, Inc. (Coinbase), one of the largest cryptocurrency trading platforms in the United States, for violating Oregon securities law. The action alleges that Coinbase illegally solicits and facilitates the sale of unregistered securities in the form of numerous cryptocurrencies to Oregon residents while reaping millions of dollars in fees from these sales. According to the complaint, the failure to register these securities has deprived Oregonians of important disclosures and protections regarding these highly speculative investments, which are vulnerable to pump-and-dump schemes and fraud, causing Oregonians to incur substantial losses.
The Attorney General brings this action on behalf of Oregon investors harmed by Coinbase’s unlawful conduct, and to protect Oregon investors from further harm.
Case Background
Since 2012, Coinbase has operated its trading platform through which users, including Oregon customers, can buy and sell crypto assets. Indeed, Coinbase is the largest crypto asset trading platform—or “crypto exchange”— in the United States and has serviced over 108 million customers, accounting for billions of dollars in daily trading volume.
The crypto securities sold on Coinbase’s platform are not registered with either the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) or the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services (“DCBS”), hindering investors’ ability to perform due diligence on their investments. While investors frequently incur devastating losses on these unregistered securities, Coinbase continues to profit on every sale of these securities on its platform.
The Attorney General began investigating Coinbase’s conduct in 2022. The SEC subsequently brought an enforcement action against Coinbase under federal law, which the SEC filed on or about June 6, 2023. In April 2024, a New York federal court denied Coinbase’s motion to dismiss, holding that the SEC adequately alleged that the crypto assets at issue in the SEC’s complaint were securities. Nonetheless, on or about February 27, 2025, the SEC and Coinbase jointly stipulated to the dismissal, with prejudice, of the SEC’s claims against Coinbase. In so doing, the SEC stated that its decision to dismiss the enforcement action was not based “on any assessment of the merits of the claims alleged in the action.” That move came just weeks after the SEC reassigned its head litigator, who had overseen the Coinbase case and the agency’s other crypto-related enforcement efforts, to its IT department. And earlier this month, former crypto lobbyist Paul Atkins was confirmed to serve as the SEC’s new chairman.
The Attorney General now brings this enforcement action under Oregon state law arising from the unlawful sale to Oregonians of the crypto securities at issue in the SEC’s complaint as well as other unregistered crypto securities sold on Coinbase. The Attorney General seeks, among other things, a fine of $20,000 for each of Coinbase’s violations of the Oregon Securities Law, disgorgement of profits Coinbase derived from the sale of unregistered crypto securities to Oregonians, and an award of restitution and/or damages on behalf of Oregonians harmed by Coinbase’s violations.