US Court Rules Trading of Certain Crypto Assets on Secondary Market as Securities Transactions

A US court has ruled that trading certain crypto assets on secondary markets like Coinbase constitutes securities transactions. The ruling was made in a default judgement against Sameer Ramani, who was one of three accused in an insider trading case. The judgement assumes significance because the crypto industry and Coinbase have argued that cryptocurrencies are not securities and therefore do not fall under the SEC. The court also prohibited Ramani from future violations, imposed a civil penalty of twice the amount of proceeds he gained, and ordered disgorgement of identified proceeds. However, the court denied the SEC's request to impose prejudgment interest.