Coinbase’s Supreme Court Loss Is Its Own Fault
The cryptocurrency platform’s lawyers made a mistake — or perhaps executives failed to heed their counsel.
Oops.
Photographer: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
To hear the words “Coinbase” and “Supreme Court” in the same breath likely inspires thoughts of the justices jousting over cryptocurrency. But this week’s decision in Coinbase v. Suski is a reminder that even in our clever new era, old principles of contract law often hold sway.
The question before the court at first blush seems simple. Back in 2021, Coinbase ran a sweepstakes offering prizes paid in Dogecoin. The plaintiffs, who participated in the competition, subsequently filed suit in federal court in California, claiming that the sweepstakes’ rules violated that state’s laws. Coinbase replied that under the terms of the User Agreement, which the plaintiffs accepted, all such disputes must go to arbitration.