Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has been sued by a blockchain startup, on allegations of stealing their work with it disguised as an investment.
BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA - OCTOBER 23: Brian Armstrong, cofounder and CEO of Coinbase speaks onstage during 'Tales from the Crypto: What the Currency of the Future Means for You' at Vanity Fair's 6th Annual New Establishment Summit at Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on October 23, 2019 in Beverly Hills, California.
CNET reports that the lawsuit was filed by MouseBelt Labs, a company who has money and work invested in Knowledgr. This is similar to the Coinbase CEO's ResearchHub, which works by rewarding people with tokens just like how Bitcoin does it.
The lawsuit says that Armstrong, after knowing about Knowledgr's headstart on his own project, offered the former's lead an investment. He also offered to host Knowledgr's token on his own platform.
By the time the offer was made, the unnamed Knowledgr leader was apparently buried deep in their student loans. Armstrong is being accused of "diverting" the project's assets into his own work, which successfully eliminates a rival.
MouseBelt filed the lawsuit in the State of California, specifically in San Francisco. You can check out the full text of the lawsuit on Scribd.
The Coinbase CEO or the company itself hasn't commented on the lawsuit yet, but this isn't exactly the first time that the cryptocurrency tycoon has faced a legal battle.
Back in September, Armstrong was also sued by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for its program that will allow crypto investors to earn interest on their assets.
According to The Washington Post, the lawsuit prompted Armstrong to explain the situation. In a lengthy, 21-part Twitter thread, he revealed that Coinbase's product was classified by the SEC as a type of security that must be registered with the US government.
1/ Some really sketchy behavior coming out of the SEC recently.
Story time…— Brian Armstrong 🛡️ (@brian_armstrong) September 8, 2021
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Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong: A Brief Background
Brian Armstrong is one of the most recognizable names in the cryptocurrency and blockchain space. He's also one of the richest crypto investors in the world.
Armstrong has amassed a massive, multi-billion-dollar fortune from his ventures. Data from Forbes' real-time monitoring (as of December 20th) show his net worth at a cool $9.8 billion.
LONDON, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 21: Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong appears on stage at the 2014 TechCrunch Disrupt Europe/London, at The Old Billingsgate on October 21, 2014 in London, England.
This net worth puts him at 60th place on the Forbes billionaire list, but actually puts him second in the list of the world's richest crypto moguls. His nest egg is only dwarfed by that of Sam Bankman-Fried (founder/CEO of FTX), who is worth $22.5 billion, according to CNBC TV18.
Part of Armstrong's net worth is tied to his Coinbase shares, which amounts to 19 percent of the company. While this doesn't sound like much, remember that the trading platform is estimated to have a market cap of $63.73 billion for 2021, according to CompaniesMarketCap.
Coinbase Wallet supports several cryptocurrency types, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, Stellar Lumens, USDC, DAI, and all ERC20 tokens. They even support the memecoin Dogecoin.
Armstrong co-founded his company in 2012 with former currency trader Fred Ehrsam, after working as a software engineer for AirBnB. Now, it is one of the biggest crypto trading exchanges out there in terms of earnings-punctuated by $1.3 billion in revenue last year.
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Written by RJ Pierce
