Oregon Takes on Coinbase, Claims XRP, SOL, ADA Are Securities (Oh, The Drama!)

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Well folks, looks like Oregon’s Attorney General Dan Rayfield decided to throw a wrench into Coinbase’s crypto paradise. On April 18, he filed a lawsuit accusing the exchange of dancing around state securities laws by listing XRP, SOL, ADA, and a handful of other digital assets without so much as a “Hey, we registered them!”

This isn’t just some random Monday morning lawsuit. Oh no, this is Oregon’s way of stepping in where federal agencies—looking at you, Trump administration—seem to have been taking naps. Apparently, Oregon’s Department of Justice felt like picking up the slack, citing that “States must fill the enforcement vacuum left by federal regulators.” Because, hey, why let Washington D.C. have all the fun?

The lawsuit goes after a smorgasbord of cryptocurrencies: XRP, Solana (SOL), Cardano (ADA), Aave (AAVE), Avalanche (AVAX), Uniswap (UNI), and Near Protocol (NEAR). All of them got cozy on Coinbase’s trading platform and Coinbase Prime, according to the state’s complaints. But here’s the kicker—they were treated like securities without the paperwork to back it up. Classic move, right?

Coinbase has yet to comment on the specific allegations. They’ve been too busy throwing their hands up in frustration over the whole thing. But hey, they did tweet on April 21, with their chief legal officer Paul Grewal throwing some serious shade, claiming the lawsuit just adds to the already-absurd uncertainty in the market. Because who doesn’t love a bit of legal chaos mixed in with their crypto trades? 😒

Justin Slaughter, VP of regulatory affairs at Paradigm, didn’t mince words either. He called this a “kitchen sink lawsuit,” because it targets everything but the kitchen sink. He also pointed out the oddity of including wrapped Terra’s token (wLUNA) in the suit while letting the original LUNA token off the hook. It’s almost like trying to solve a puzzle where all the pieces look the same but don’t quite fit. 🤔

Legal experts are weighing in, and it’s not looking pretty. Yarden Noy, a partner at DLT Law, warned that if the court rules these assets as securities, it’s just going to cause more confusion. “No binding precedent,” he says. Translation: this case isn’t going to clear up anything for the rest of the crypto world. It’s like trying to clean up a spill with a leaky bucket.

Meanwhile, Ripple Labs, the company behind XRP, has been caught up in its own ongoing legal drama with the SEC. After a heated battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which sued Ripple back in late 2020 for allegedly conducting a $1.3 billion unregistered securities offering, the SEC wrapped up its case in March 2025. But here’s the thing: the fog around XRP hasn’t lifted, and now Oregon’s lawsuit is throwing yet another wrench into the already tangled mess.

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2025-04-22 20:21