Supreme Court Denies Coinbase Request to Intervene in Lawsuits

The U.S. Supreme Court has denied a request by cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase to intervene in a pair of lawsuits.

As Bloomberg reported Thursday (Aug. 11), Coinbase had wanted the court to put the cases on hold while the company tries to settle the suits out of court.

Read more: Coinbase to Supreme Court: Stop 2 User Lawsuits in Crypto Cases

Two federal judges had already blocked Coinbase’s attempt to take the cases to arbitration. The question facing the high court was whether the civil trials against Coinbase could continue while the company appealed those rulings, or if it needed to wait for a ruling from the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals on arbitration before proceeding.

“Allowing district court proceedings to march onward — through discovery, potential class proceedings, and even a trial — while the arbitrability question is on appeal” would harm Coinbase in ways that can’t be undone, even if the case is eventually sent to arbitration, the company told the justices in its request for intervention last week.

As PYMNTS reported, Coinbase is facing two lawsuits from customers, both of which are attempting to reach the class action level.

In the first case, a man is asking Coinbase to reimburse him $31,000 he says he lost by giving remote account access to a scammer.

The second case accuses Coinbase of violating California consumer law by holding a $1.2 million dogecoin sweepstakes without adequately disclosing that participants were not required to buy or sell the cryptocurrency.

See also: SEC Probes Coinbase on Staking, Asset Classification, Stablecoin Products

Coinbase revealed this week it is also being investigated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for its staking programs, which allow users to earn rewards by holding some cryptocurrencies.

The company said it has gotten investigative subpoenas and requests from the commission for documents and information about some customer programs and plans for future products. The requests are connected to Coinbase’s staking programs, asset listing process, classification of assets and stablecoin products.

Coinbase said it doesn’t think these things will negatively impact its profits, although it said there could be some adverse effects later on.

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