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Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Yes, the SEC could pursue most of its claims against Coinbase past the initial pleading stage—but that was not a final ruling that Coinbase broke securities laws. In March 2024, a federal judge found that the SEC had plausibly alleged unregistered exchange, broker, clearing-agency and staking activity, while dismissing claims about Coinbase Wallet. The case was later dismissed with prejudice by agreement in February 2025, without a decision on the merits.
What the SEC alleged against Coinbase
The SEC sued Coinbase, Inc. and Coinbase Global, Inc. in June 2023. It alleged that Coinbase operated its trading platform as an unregistered national securities exchange, broker and clearing agency, and that its staking-as-a-service program involved an unregistered offer and sale of securities. Those were allegations in the complaint, not facts established at trial. The SEC’s June 21, 2023 announcement described its theory of how Coinbase’s services fit those categories.
| Claim | What the SEC alleged | What happened in March 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Unregistered exchange | The platform brought together buyers’ and sellers’ securities orders. | The claim was allowed to proceed because the complaint plausibly alleged qualifying securities transactions. |
| Unregistered broker | Coinbase effected customer securities transactions. | The claim was allowed to proceed at the pleading stage. |
| Unregistered clearing agency | Coinbase provided facilities for settling securities transactions. | The claim was allowed to proceed at the pleading stage. |
| Staking program | Coinbase pooled customers’ stakeable crypto assets for proof-of-stake validation and distributed a portion of generated rewards, which the SEC said constituted an unregistered securities offering. | The staking claim was allowed to proceed at the pleading stage. |
| Control-person liability | The SEC sought to hold Coinbase Global responsible in connection with the alleged violations by Coinbase, Inc. | The claim against Coinbase Global was allowed to proceed. |
| Coinbase Wallet | The SEC asserted claims tied to Coinbase Wallet. | The Wallet-related claims were dismissed. |
What the judge actually ruled
On March 27, 2024, U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla of the Southern District of New York denied Coinbase’s motion for judgment on the pleadings in significant part. She concluded that the SEC had sufficiently pleaded claims involving the exchange, broker, clearing-agency and staking activities, along with a control-person claim against Coinbase Global. She dismissed the claims concerning Coinbase Wallet. The order is available as Document 105 in SEC v. Coinbase.
The court’s decision addressed whether the complaint’s allegations were legally sufficient to continue—not whether the SEC had proved them. A motion-stage ruling is not a trial verdict, and the order did not establish Coinbase’s liability.
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Random freezes, missing sound and display glitches usually trace back to one bad driver. Find and replace yours safely.Free scan · under a minuteDid the judge say crypto is a security?
No. The judge did not rule that every cryptocurrency is a security. The order found that the SEC had plausibly alleged that transactions involving some crypto assets could qualify as investment contracts under the applicable securities-law framework. Whether a particular transaction meets that standard depends on the circumstances and legal analysis; the ruling was not a blanket classification of crypto assets.
Failla wrote: “the ‘crypto’ nomenclature may be of recent vintage, but the challenged transactions fall comfortably within the framework that courts have used to identify securities for nearly eighty years.” That sentence appears in her March 27, 2024 opinion; it explains the court’s approach to the allegations, not a final finding against Coinbase.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What happened to the SEC’s Coinbase lawsuit?
The case did not proceed to a trial verdict. On February 28, 2025, the parties stipulated to dismiss it with prejudice, and the court closed the case. The stipulation applied to conduct alleged in the complaint through the date it was filed. The defendants withdrew their request for an interlocutory appeal, and the Second Circuit recorded the appeal’s withdrawal in a mandate dated March 4, 2025. The docket is available through Coinbase’s SEC enforcement docket.
The dismissal with prejudice ended this litigation, but it was not a judicial decision adopting either the SEC’s legal theory or Coinbase’s. It did not convert the 2024 pleading-stage order into a final finding of liability.
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