Coinbase Wallet, Account Services Weren’t Secure, Alleges Class Action

Plaintiff Jean-Remi Massery of France filed a class action Wednesday (docket 3:23-cv-04026) in U.S. District Court for Northern California in San Francisco on behalf of all EU-resident Coinbase wallet and account holders who had their wallets or accounts hacked by third parties or frozen by Coinbase. As EU residents, the plaintiff and class members aren’t subject to any arbitration provision in Coinbase’s terms of service because such provisions in consumer agreements “are not enforceable throughout the European Union,” said the complaint. Though Coinbase is the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the U.S., its wallet and account services weren’t secure, alleged the class action. “As demonstrated by the widespread successful hacking and fraud perpetrated against Coinbase users, Coinbase lacked adequate security to prevent its users’ funds from being drained by scammers and hackers,” it said. It also lacked “adequate warning and notification systems” and processes to warn its customers of specific risks of theft and fraud associated with certain third-party websites that Coinbase allowed its customers to “unwittingly connect to,” it said. Coinbase also lacked “adequate staffing to carry out its policies, practices, and procedures to the extent they were designed to protect its customers' wallets and accounts,” it said. Coinbase didn’t comment.