Coinbase Again Accused of Insider Trading After New Altcoin Prospects Are Published

An attempt to improve the transparency of the asset listing process at Coinbase has instead inadvertently raised further questions about insider trading.

In an April 11 blog published by Coinbase, the exchange announced 50 altcoins that it’s currently considering for listing between April 1-June 30. For Coinbase the goal of its endeavor is to, “increase transparency by providing as much information symmetry as possible.”

If it had been hoped that this increased transparency would increase investor confidence in the fairness of the asset listing system, it wasn’t long until such notions were disabused. 

Shortly after the publication of the Coinbase article crypto influencer Cobie announced the discovery of a wallet with hundreds of thousands of dollars of named assets. Tellingly, the assets in the wallet had been purchased just 24 hours before the Coinbase article went live.

“Found an ETH address that bought hundreds of thousands of dollars of tokens exclusively featured in the Coinbase Asset Listing post about 24 hours before it was published, rofl,” wrote Cobie on his Twitter on April 12.

Specifically, the account had purchased tokens totaling next to $400,000 including Indexed (NDX), Kromatika (KROM), DappRadar (RADAR), RAC (RAC), DFX Token (DFX), and Paper (PAPER). 

The value of the tokens has increased modestly since the announcement.

Oops, it happened again

Coinbase may never have previously released the names of tokens it is currently considering for listing, but it is not the first time that someone with insider knowledge at the company has been accused of frontrunning the market.

In February a similar incident occurred before the listing of Pawtocol (UPI) and Aventus (AVT). A new wallet was created and a seven-figure sum of tokens was placed into it before the listing announcement was made.

Tokens Coinbase is currently considering listing

ERC20 Etheruem tokens:

1. Aleph.im (ALEPH) — Contract Address: 0x27702a26126e0b3702af63ee09ac4d1a084ef628
2. Arcblock (ABT) — Contract Address: 0xb98d4c97425d9908e66e53a6fdf673acca0be986
3. BiFi (BIFI) — Contract Address: 0x2791bfd60d232150bff86b39b7146c0eaaa2ba81
4. Big Data Protocol (BDP) — Contract Address: 0xf3dcbc6D72a4E1892f7917b7C43b74131Df8480e
5. Binance USD (BUSD) — Contract Address: 0x4Fabb145d64652a948d72533023f6E7A623C7C53
6. BitDAO (BIT) — Contract Address: 0x1A4b46696b2bB4794Eb3D4c26f1c55F9170fa4C5
7. Botto (BOTTO) — Contract Address: 0x9dfad1b7102d46b1b197b90095b5c4e9f5845bba
8. Chrono.tech (TIME) — Contract Address: 0x485d17A6f1B8780392d53D64751824253011A260
9. Coin98 (C98) — Contract Address: 0xae12c5930881c53715b369cec7606b70d8eb229f
10. DappRadar (RADAR) — Contract Address: 0x44709a920fccf795fbc57baa433cc3dd53c44dbe
11. DEXTools (DEXT) — Contract Address: 0xfb7b4564402e5500db5bb6d63ae671302777c75a
12. DFX Finance (DFX) — Contract Address: 0x888888435fde8e7d4c54cab67f206e4199454c60
13. Dope Wars Paper (PAPER) — Contract Address: 0x7ae1d57b58fa6411f32948314badd83583ee0e8c
14. Drep [new] (DREP) — Contract Address: 0x3Ab6Ed69Ef663bd986Ee59205CCaD8A20F98b4c2
15. Elastos (ELA) — Contract Address: 0xe6fd75ff38adca4b97fbcd938c86b98772431867
16. Gemini USD (GUSD) — Contract Address: 0x056Fd409E1d7A124BD7017459dFEa2F387b6d5Cd
17. Honey (HNY) — Contract Address: 0xc3589f56b6869824804a5ea29f2c9886af1b0fce
18. Hopr Token (HOPR) — Contract Address: 0xf5581dfefd8fb0e4aec526be659cfab1f8c781da
19. Index Cooperative (INDEX) — Contract Address: 0x0954906da0Bf32d5479e25f46056d22f08464cab
20. Indexed Finance (NDX) — Contract Address: 0x86772b1409b61c639eaac9ba0acfbb6e238e5f83
21. Jupiter (JUP) — Contract Address: 0x4b1e80cac91e2216eeb63e29b957eb91ae9c2be8
22. Kromatika (KROM) — Contract Address: 0x3af33bef05c2dcb3c7288b77fe1c8d2aeba4d789
23. LockTrip (LOC) — Contract Address: 0x5e3346444010135322268a4630d2ed5f8d09446c
24. MATH (MATH) — Contract Address: 0x08d967bb0134f2d07f7cfb6e246680c53927dd30
25. Monavale (MONA) — Contract Address: 0x275f5Ad03be0Fa221B4C6649B8AeE09a42D9412A
26. Morpheus Labs (MITX) — Contract Address: 0x4a527d8fc13c5203ab24ba0944f4cb14658d1db6
27. mStable Governance Token: Meta (MTA) — Contract Address: 0xa3bed4e1c75d00fa6f4e5e6922db7261b5e9acd2
28. Muse (MUSE) — Contract Address: 0xb6ca7399b4f9ca56fc27cbff44f4d2e4eef1fc81
29. Nest Protocol (NEST) — Contract Address: 0x04abeda201850ac0124161f037efd70c74ddc74c
30. Opacity (OPCT) — Contract Address: 0xdb05ea0877a2622883941b939f0bb11d1ac7c400
31. OpenDAO (SOS) — Contract Address: 0x3b484b82567a09e2588a13d54d032153f0c0aee0
32. PARSIQ (PRQ) — Contract Address: 0x362bc847A3a9637d3af6624EeC853618a43ed7D2
33. PolkaFoundry (PKF) — Contract Address: 0x8b39b70e39aa811b69365398e0aace9bee238aeb
34. Polkamon (PMON) — Contract Address: 0x1796ae0b0fa4862485106a0de9b654eFE301D0b2
35. RAC (RAC) — Contract Address: 0xc22b30e4cce6b78aaaadae91e44e73593929a3e9
36. SelfKey (KEY) — Contract Address: 0x4cc19356f2d37338b9802aa8e8fc58b0373296e7
37. StackOS (STACK) — Contract Address: 0x56a86d648c435dc707c8405b78e2ae8eb4e60ba4
38. StaFi (FIS) — Contract Address: 0xef3a930e1ffffacd2fc13434ac81bd278b0ecc8d
39. Strike (STRK) — Contract Address: 0x74232704659ef37c08995e386a2e26cc27a8d7b1
40. Student Coin (STC) — Contract Address: 0x15b543e986b8c34074dfc9901136d9355a537e7e
41. SwftCoin (SWFTC) — Contract Address: 0x0bb217E40F8a5Cb79Adf04E1aAb60E5abd0dfC1e
42. Sylo (SYLO) — Contract Address: 0xf293d23bf2cdc05411ca0eddd588eb1977e8dcd4
43. TE-Food (TONE) — Contract Address: 0x2Ab6Bb8408ca3199B8Fa6C92d5b455F820Af03c4
44. UnMarshal (MARSH) — Contract Address: 0x5a666c7d92E5fA7Edcb6390E4efD6d0CDd69cF37
45. Wrapped Ampleforth (WAMPL) — Contract Address: 0xedb171c18ce90b633db442f2a6f72874093b49ef

SPL Solana tokens:

1. Apricot Finance (APT) — Contract Address: APTtJyaRX5yGTsJU522N4VYWg3vCvSb65eam5GrPT5Rt
2. Bitspawn (SPWN) — Contract Address: 5U9QqCPhqXAJcEv9uyzFJd5zhN93vuPk1aNNkXnUfPnt
3. Green Satoshi Token (GST) — Contract Address: AFbX8oGjGpmVFywbVouvhQSRmiW2aR1mohfahi4Y2AdB
4. Media Network (MEDIA) — Contract Address: ETAtLmCmsoiEEKfNrHKJ2kYy3MoABhU6NQvpSfij5tDs
5. Realy (REAL) — Contract Address: AD27ov5fVU2XzwsbvnFvb1JpCBaCB5dRXrczV9CqSVGb