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Bitcoin Global News (BGN)

March 09, 2018 -- ADVFN Crypto NewsWire -- Coinbase has been served with a new class action lawsuit, filed March 2, alleging that it “kept” funds that its users sent via email, but which recipients never claimed. The Restis Law Firm filed the class action on behalf of two Coinbase users seeking reimbursement of the funds sent using email. The complaint claims that, “Defendant kept, and continues to keep, unredeemed cryptocurrencies sent via email through Coinbase.com...Imagine writing a cashier’s check to a friend. The bank withdraws funds from your account, but your friend never cashes the check. Does the bank get to keep the funds? The law clearly says no. But this is exactly what has happened with cryptocurrencies sent through Coinbase.com...Funds which cannot be delivered to recipients due to stale email addresses are asked to be turned over to the State of California in order to prevent unjust enrichment of Coinbase.”

Coinbase at one time allowed its users to send Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash to an external email addresses instead of to a cryptocurrency wallet. The emails would link the recipient to a Coinbase account setup landing page where the recipient could ostensibly claim their cryptocurrency. However, not every transaction was redeemed, and the plaintiffs are demanding to know where the unredeemed funds went.

Anyone potentially affected by the Coinbase's alleged practice of not returning emailed coins that went unclaimed can join the class action, which states, “Until 2017, most people never heard of a ‘bitcoin’ or cryptocurrency, so most of these emails were disregarded. And most of the cryptocurrency went unclaimed. But instead of notifying Plaintiffs and the Class they had unclaimed cryptocurrencies, or turning those cryptocurrencies over to the State of California as required by California’s Unclaimed Property Law, Coinbase kept them.”

This new lawsuit comes right after a complaint filed against Coinbase in San Francisco federal court regarding the launch of Bitcoin Cash on Coinbase. That class action alleges insider trading hurt Coinbase customers who placed purchase, sale, or trade orders on the main exchange or its GDAX platform from December 19-21, 2017. The complaint claims that, “When Coinbase’s customers’ trades were finally executed, it was only after the insiders had driven up the price of BCH, and thus the remaining Bitcoin customers only received their BCH at artificially inflated prices that had been manipulated well beyond the fair market value of BCH at that time.”

By: BGN Editorial Staff