Coinbase has resolved a string of legal matters through settlements over the past several years, including a $100 million consent order with New York’s financial regulator, a €21.5 million fine in Ireland, a £3.5 million UK penalty, and a $2.25 million class action over a 2021 Dogecoin sweepstakes that pays money directly to eligible customers. Other Coinbase settlements involve the CFTC, New Jersey, and the Dutch central bank, while a major 2025 data breach case and a securities fraud suit against the company are still working through the courts.
Dogecoin Sweepstakes Payouts to Customers
The one Coinbase settlement that puts money in customers’ hands is the $2.25 million deal in Suski et al. v. Coinbase, Inc. et al. (Case No. 3:21-cv-04539-SK) in the Northern District of California. Plaintiffs alleged that Coinbase’s promotional materials for a June 2021 Dogecoin sweepstakes were designed to make people believe they had to buy, sell, or trade at least $100 of Dogecoin on the platform to enter, when in fact a free mail-in entry option existed but was buried on a separate rules page.1June 2021 Dogecoin Sweepstakes Settlement. Frequently Asked Questions
The settlement class covers roughly 447,644 people who opted into the sweepstakes and traded $100 or more in Dogecoin on Coinbase between June 3 and June 10, 2021.2ClassAction.org. $2.25M Coinbase Settlement Resolves Lawsuit Over Dogecoin Sweepstakes Advertising No claim form is needed. Class members with active Coinbase accounts receive funds directly in-app; those with closed accounts get a check mailed to the address Coinbase had on file as of June 17, 2025.3June 2021 Dogecoin Sweepstakes Settlement. Settlement Homepage
Individual amounts are calculated from the transaction fees and spreads paid on the first $100 of Dogecoin trades during the sweepstakes week. Estimated payouts range from about $1 to $5, with some reaching $17. Class counsel Harris LLP requested up to $750,000 in attorney fees and up to $75,000 in expenses from the fund, and each of the four named plaintiffs requested service awards of up to $7,000.1June 2021 Dogecoin Sweepstakes Settlement. Frequently Asked Questions The court granted preliminary approval on July 3, 2025, and set a final approval hearing for November 10, 2025, before Magistrate Judge Sallie Kim.2ClassAction.org. $2.25M Coinbase Settlement Resolves Lawsuit Over Dogecoin Sweepstakes Advertising
Before the case settled, it produced a Supreme Court decision. In Coinbase, Inc. v. Suski (No. 23-3), decided unanimously on May 23, 2024, the Court held that when two contracts conflict on arbitration, a court rather than an arbitrator decides which one governs.4Supreme Court of the United States. Coinbase, Inc. v. Suski, No. 23-3 After that ruling, the case returned to district court and the parties negotiated the settlement now paying out.
May 2025 Data Breach Litigation
If you were notified that your data was exposed in the May 2025 Coinbase breach, no settlement exists yet. Coinbase disclosed that criminals bribed overseas customer support contractors to steal information on approximately 69,461 customers, including names, addresses, phone numbers, emails, masked Social Security numbers, government ID images, and account balance information. The intrusion occurred on December 26, 2024, and was detected on May 11, 2025. No passwords or private keys were compromised.5Milberg LLC. Coinbase Data Breach Class Action Lawsuit6ClassAction.org. Coinbase Data Breach Lawsuits
The attackers demanded $20 million to suppress the stolen data. Coinbase refused and set up a $20 million reward fund for information leading to arrests and convictions. The company estimated total remediation and customer reimbursement costs at between $180 million and $400 million.5Milberg LLC. Coinbase Data Breach Class Action Lawsuit
Around 20 lawsuits were filed in federal courts nationwide. On August 7, 2025, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation consolidated them into MDL No. 3153 (In Re: Coinbase Customer Data Security Breach Litigation) in the Southern District of New York before Judge Edgardo Ramos.7New York Law Journal. Coinbase Data Breach Cases Consolidated in New York The court set deadlines for a consolidated amended complaint and for Coinbase to move to compel arbitration under its user agreement. The MDL panel noted that consolidation would ensure “consistent interpretation of the arbitration provision in Coinbase’s customer user agreements.”8U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation. MDL-3153 Transfer Order Any payout to affected customers is potentially many months away and, given Coinbase’s arbitration position, may not take the form of a class settlement at all.
Regulatory Fines and Consent Orders
Most Coinbase settlements are between the company and government regulators. The money goes to state or national treasuries, not to individual users, but the findings themselves are useful context if you’re a customer trying to understand what went wrong.
New York DFS — $100 Million
The largest single action came from the New York State Department of Financial Services. On January 4, 2023, the DFS announced a $100 million settlement over what it called “significant failings” in Coinbase’s compliance program. The deal split evenly: a $50 million penalty to New York State and a required $50 million investment in the company’s compliance infrastructure over two years.9New York State Department of Financial Services. DFS Superintendent Harris Announces Coinbase Settlement The investigation found systemic problems in anti-money laundering controls, know-your-customer procedures, transaction monitoring, and suspicious activity reporting, with a backlog of more than 100,000 unreviewed monitoring alerts by late 2021.10New York State Department of Financial Services. Enforcement Action Against Coinbase DFS had already installed an independent monitor in early 2022.11Coinbase. Coinbase and NYDFS Reach Agreement to Resolve Compliance Investigation
Central Bank of Ireland — €21.5 Million
In November 2025, the Central Bank of Ireland imposed a €21.5 million fine on Coinbase Europe Limited, its first enforcement action in the cryptocurrency sector. Ireland’s High Court confirmed the penalty in January 2026.12Central Bank of Ireland. Enforcement Action Against Coinbase Europe Limited Coding errors in Coinbase Europe’s monitoring system meant five of 21 scenarios only partially screened transactions during 2021 and 2022, leaving more than 30 million transactions worth over €176 billion unmonitored across a 12-month period. Once Coinbase reviewed the affected activity, it flagged roughly 185,000 transactions for further investigation and filed approximately 2,700 suspicious transaction reports.13Coinbase. Resolving Past Transaction Monitoring Errors The original proposed penalty of over €30.6 million was reduced 30% for settlement.
UK FCA — £3.5 Million
On July 25, 2024, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority fined CB Payments Limited, a Coinbase subsidiary, £3,503,546 for repeatedly breaching a voluntary requirement it had agreed to in October 2020 that was supposed to bar the firm from onboarding high-risk customers. Between October 2020 and October 2023, CB Payments onboarded 13,416 high-risk customers, including politically exposed persons and people on sanctions lists. About 31% of those customers deposited roughly $24.9 million, which funded crypto transactions through other Coinbase entities totaling approximately $226 million.14Financial Conduct Authority. Final Notice: CB Payments Limited The fine reflected a 30% early-resolution discount.15Financial Conduct Authority. FCA First Enforcement Action Against Firm Enabling Cryptoasset Trading
Other Regulatory Settlements
- CFTC, $6.5 million (March 2021): The Commodity Futures Trading Commission found that Coinbase operated automated trading programs between 2015 and 2018 that matched orders with one another, producing misleading transaction data, and held the company vicariously liable for a former employee’s 2016 wash trades in Litecoin/Bitcoin.16Commodity Futures Trading Commission. CFTC Orders Coinbase Inc. to Pay $6.5 Million
- New Jersey, $5 million (June 2023): The New Jersey Bureau of Securities issued a cease and desist order and assessed a $5 million penalty over Coinbase’s staking program, which the state characterized as the sale of unregistered securities. The program then had over 3.5 million investors nationwide, roughly 145,000 of them in New Jersey.17New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. New Jersey Bureau of Securities Brings Action Against Coinbase
- De Nederlandsche Bank, €3.3 million (January 2023): The Dutch central bank fined Coinbase Europe for offering crypto services in the Netherlands without the required anti-money laundering registration from November 2020 until at least August 2022. The DNB called the non-compliance “very severe.”18De Nederlandsche Bank. DNB Imposes Administrative Fine on Coinbase Europe Limited
The SEC Case Was Dismissed, Not Settled
The SEC’s high-profile enforcement action against Coinbase does not belong on the settlements list. In June 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission sued Coinbase in the Southern District of New York, alleging the company operated as an unregistered broker, exchange, and clearing agency and violated securities laws through its staking program. On February 27, 2025, the SEC and Coinbase filed a joint stipulation to dismiss the case with prejudice, with no ruling on the merits and no payment by Coinbase. The SEC said the dismissal was intended to “facilitate the Commission’s ongoing efforts to reform and renew its regulatory approach to the crypto industry,” and Acting Chairman Mark T. Uyeda stated that it was “time for the Commission to rectify its approach.”19SEC. SEC Dismisses Coinbase Enforcement Action The SEC noted the dismissal did not reflect any assessment of the merits and did not apply to any other case.
COIN Investor Securities Class Action
Coinbase Global, Inc. also faces a securities fraud class action on behalf of investors who bought COIN stock between April 14, 2021, and July 25, 2024. The suit alleges the company made materially misleading statements by failing to disclose problems at its UK subsidiary CB Payments Limited, including the FCA’s 2020 findings about inadequate anti-criminal controls and the subsequent breach of that agreement by serving 13,416 high-risk customers.20BusinessWire. COIN Deadline: Rosen Law Firm Encourages Coinbase Investors to Secure Counsel The lead plaintiff deadline was November 12, 2024. As of mid-2026, no class had been certified and no public update indicated the case had advanced to substantive proceedings.21Rosen Law Firm. Coinbase Global, Inc. Securities Class Action
Arbitration Is the Recurring Backdrop
Coinbase’s user agreement generally requires disputes to go through binding arbitration, and that clause is central to how customer cases against the company play out. The Supreme Court’s 2024 decision in Suski limited Coinbase’s ability to force arbitration where a later contract (like sweepstakes rules pointing to court) supersedes the user agreement.4Supreme Court of the United States. Coinbase, Inc. v. Suski, No. 23-3 A year earlier, in Coinbase, Inc. v. Bielski, decided June 23, 2023, a 5-4 majority held that district courts must automatically stay proceedings while a company appeals a judge’s refusal to compel arbitration.22Justia. Coinbase, Inc. v. Bielski, 599 U.S. ___ (2023) For customers in the data breach MDL and future disputes, those two decisions together mean the arbitration fight often comes first, and any class-wide settlement usually depends on losing or bypassing it.