The First Insider Trading Case Involving Cryptocurrency

The brother of a former Coinbase product manager was sentenced on Tuesday to 10 months in prison after pleading guilty in what U.S. prosecutors have called the first insider trading case involving cryptocurrency. Reuters reports: Nikhil Wahi admitted to making trades based on confidential information from Coinbase, one of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, when he pleaded guilty in September to a wire fraud conspiracy charge. Prosecutors said Ishan Wahi, the former product manager, shared the information with his brother and their friend Sameer Ramani about new digital assets that Coinbase was planning to let users trade. Ishan Wahi has pleaded not guilty, and Ramani is at large.

Prosecutors said Wahi made nearly $900,000 of profit by illegally trading ahead of 40 different Coinbase announcements. They recommended a 10- to 16-month sentence. At a sentencing hearing in Manhattan federal court, U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska said his crime was 'not an isolated error in judgment.' 'Today's sentence makes clear that the cryptocurrency markets are not lawless,' Damian Williams, the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, said in a statement. Further reading: Coinbase To Cut 20% Jobs, Abandon 'Several' Projects To Weather Downturns in Crypto Market

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