Friday, March 13, 2026

As Coinbase Is Sued for Suspension of WLUNA Trading Sanctions Mulled Quotation Marks on Temporarily

SDNY COURTHOUSE, March 13 –  A case against Coinbase for its actions when Terraform Labs' LUNA crashed in May 2022 was up for a hearing on March 13 before U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Jed S. Rakoff. Inner City Press was there, and live tweeted.  

   Things went round and round, about arbitration clauses and Coinbase's choice of venue, about LUNA death spiral and what came out in the SEC case before Judge Rakoff, which Inner City Press covered, as it did the criminal case against Do Kwon, his guilty plea and sentencing. 

 But then things caught fire, when Coinbase's lawyer said that while the amended complaint states that Coinbase announced" that trading in WLUNA would be 'temporarily' suspended," Coinbase has not been able to find any statement of its to that effect. Counsel said they'd raised to the plaintiffs' lawyer, who in the amended complaint took out all quotation marks around "temporarily" - except this one.  

Judge Rakoff, shifting into his rising-anger voice, asked both plaintiffs' lawyer to explain. One deferred to the other, who deferred back.  

Well someone better answer, or I'll be imposing sanctions. $10,000 was mentioned. But might it have an impact on the motion to dismiss, or to stay and compel arbitration?  

More analysis on X for Subscribers here and Substack here 

The case is Heabeart et al v. Coinbase, Inc. et al. 1:25-cv-9197 (Rakoff) First paragraph goes here.