Former Coinbase product manager Ishan Wahi has been sentenced to two years in prison for insider trading, marking the first insider trading case in the history of cryptocurrency. US District Judge Loretta Preska handed down the sentence in a Manhattan federal court, following Wahi’s guilty plea in February to two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. This case is one of two notable crypto-related cases in New York, along with the FTX collapse and the prosecution of founder Sam Bankman-Fried.
Wahi, according to federal prosecutors, shared confidential information about upcoming digital asset listings on Coinbase with his brother Nikhil and their friend Sameer Ramani. This insider information allowed them to generate $1.5 million in profits by trading 55 different cryptocurrencies before the listings were publicly announced, between June 2021 and April 2022.
Nikhil Wahi had already pleaded guilty to the charges in September and received a ten-month prison sentence in January. He had requested a sentence no longer than his brother’s, citing other insider trading cases that did not result in prison time. However, the prosecution argued for a three-year sentence to set a precedent and discourage future cases of crypto-related insider trading. Ultimately, Ishan Wahi received a two-year sentence in line with the prosecution’s request.
