What happened 

Shares of Coinbase Global (COIN 7.75%) fell as much as 6.2% in trading on Wednesday as investors sold the crypto sector overall. Shares were down 3.7% at 3 p.m. ET and look like they'll likely close the day lower. 

So what 

Cryptocurrencies are generally down today with some like Solana and Polygon dropping nearly 5%. When the crypto market falls, it's not uncommon to see Coinbase drop as well. 

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NASDAQ: COIN

Coinbase Global, Inc.

Today's Change

(-7.75%) $-16.44

Current Price

$195.57

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$52B

Day's Range

$192.36 - $206.00

52wk Range

$139.36 - $444.64

Volume

635K

Avg Vol

12M

Gross Margin

79.87%

The more troubling report was an academic study published by SSRN that accuses Coinbase insiders of earning $1.5 million in trading profits from insider trading. The company has already seen one person be charged with insider trading, so a widening legal problem wouldn't be welcome by Coinbase. It's unclear what the outcome of this study will be, but it's not a great headline today. 

Now what 

It's worth keeping an eye on the insider trading investigations, but at this point there's nothing to indicate that Coinbase as a company did anything wrong. That could change, of course. 

The decline in cryptocurrencies isn't necessarily a bad thing either. Coinbase makes money on transactions, not just the value of cryptocurrencies, so the company is still well positioned for when the market recovers. As I highlighted earlier this week, Coinbase is building new features despite the crypto winter, and that's all investors can ask for long term.