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According to data posted on Twitter by @theirish_man, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong sold Coinbase stock shares before being warned by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Armstong had been selling his shares since November 20,22. But, three sales transactions made days before the SEC warning caused Coinbase shares drops by 10%. This has raised concerns in the community.
The sales
The data shows that Armstrong facilitated four sales transactions since the beginning of March – on Mar. 3, Mar. 15, and two more on Mar. 21. He sold a total of 89,196 Coinbase shares — which add up to $5,871,561 in value. The SEC warned that almost half of the amount sold in the 24 hours preceding the warning.
Mar. was the most recent month for sales. 21. Armstrong issued two transactions to sell from the prices of $75.31 and $75.51, respectively. The SEC warned was made public on March. 22. This dropped share prices by more than 10%. Coinbase share price at the time this article was written sits at $77.14 — making a 8.16% fall in price in the last 24 hours.
According to the numbers, Armstrong sold Coinbase shares almost daily since November 2022. In November 2022 (December 2022), January 2022 (January 2022), and January 2022 (both monthly), he had two sale transactions. He issued three transactions per month in February and March to increase the amount of sales.
SEC Warning
On Mar. 17, the SEC sent a Wells Notice to Coinbase. 22. The SEC has recommended enforcement action against Coinbase after receiving the Wells notice. The filing specifies that the upcoming enforcement action will likely concern parts of Coinbase’s main trading platform and its other services — such as Coinbase Prime and Coinbase Wallet.
Upon first response, Coinbase said it is confident in its services and it “welcomes a legal process,” indicating that it will fight with the SEC. Coinbase was also supported and supported by the crypto community. Executives of the crypto sphere started to question if the SEC’s warning was a deliberate attempt to stifle the market.