22-4-2025 – Oregon’s Attorney General has mounted a substantial legal challenge against cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, mere days before the platform’s launch of XRP futures trading. The lawsuit, which dwarfs previous regulatory actions, targets an unprecedented array of 31 digital assets, claiming they constitute unregistered securities.
The timing proves particularly intriguing, as Coinbase had just positioned itself to offer XRP futures through its derivatives platform, which operates under the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s oversight. The move to launch these regulated futures contracts on 21 April suggested growing confidence in XRP’s regulatory standing.
At the heart of the controversy lies a fundamental disagreement over the classification of digital assets. The Oregon filing’s scope significantly exceeds the Securities and Exchange Commission’s earlier proceedings, which identified 13 tokens as potentially problematic. Among the contested cryptocurrencies are prominent names such as XRP, UNI, LINK, AAVE, and MKR, all of which the state claims were marketed as investment contracts through Coinbase’s trading platforms.
The inclusion of XRP in Oregon’s complaint has raised particular scrutiny amongst market observers. This follows a complex regulatory history where Coinbase had previously removed XRP from its platform following the SEC’s legal action against Ripple in December 2020. The exchange only reinstated XRP trading after Judge Torres’ landmark ruling in July 2023, which notably determined that XRP, in itself, did not constitute a security—a crucial distinction apparently absent from Oregon’s legal framework.
