Brian Armstrong sold $1.8M Coinbase shares ahead of SEC lawsuit
TLDR
- Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong sold nearly 30,000 shares of his company worth around $1.8 million.
- Armstrong sold the company’s shares two days before the SEC initiated enforcement action against the Coinbase exchange.
- According to Forbes Brian Armstrong is the world’s 1,409th richest person, But he has lost 11.8% of his wealth amid the SEC probe.
Reports around the crypto community have it on good report that the CEO of Coinbase made heavy sales ahead of the SEC crypto dilemma. According to Dataroma, Brian Armstrong sold his shares for $1.8 million just before the SEC filed a lawsuit against the company. On-chain data shows that on June 6, news of the lawsuit caused a more than 15% drop in Coinbase’s shares.
Brian Armstrong recent activities sends negative waves to investors
According to crypto news, Brian Armstrong, the Chief at Coinbase, sold company shares the day before the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lodged a complaint against the exchange for securities law violations. Armstrong averted a significant loss by performing the transaction. The sale caused a minor stir in the Twitter cryptoverse.
According to SEC records, the day before the SEC lawsuit, Armstrong sold 29,730 shares of the company, On the day of the lawsuit, the share price of Coinbase fell by 20% initially.
Since November, Brian Armstrong has consistently sold Coinbase stock. The trades were carried out in accordance with a 10b5-1 plan implemented in August, which determines in advance the timing and size of transactions.
According to On Chain statistics, the sale was one of eight separate transactions on the same day. Brian Armstrong made more than $1.7 million by selling his company’s Class A Common Stock at an average price of $60.3 per share.
Eleanor Terrett, a Fox Business journalist, came to Twitter to give her thoughts on the topic after crypto users accused Brian Armstrong of dumping his shares to escape the impact of the SEC’s case. Terrett stated that Brian Armstrong’s shares were part of a pre-planned stock sale that began in August 2022. According to Terrett, it is usual for CEOs to organize stock sales on the first Monday of the month or at the start of the third fiscal quarter.
Reports of alleged stock dumping surfaced just days after various Coinbase executives, including Brian Armstrong, sold nearly $2.7 million in a single day. Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal, Chief People Officer Brock Lawrence, Chief Financial Officer Haas Alesia, and company President Choi Emilie were among the executives.
When the stock price of Coinbase is compared to the dates of Armstrong’s trades, it becomes clear that his trades were not always lucrative. As a result, the deal might have been put up before Armstrong learned about the SEC action. In contrast, the SEC could have been aware of Brian Armstrong’s trading algorithm.
Armstrong’s net worth was estimated to have dropped 11.8% the day after the SEC action against Coinbase, bringing his personal wealth down to $2.2 billion. According to Forbes, Armstrong is the world’s 1,409th richest person.
According to Dataroma records, only board members Tobias Lutke and Fred Ehrsam have purchased Coinbase stock in the recent year. Armstrong and Ehrsam were named as defendants in a May lawsuit brought by a Coinbase shareholder, who claimed they and other Coinbase backers sold shares in an April 2021 public offering before unfavorable financial information was published, causing the share price to plummet by 37%.
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