• The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear Coinbase’s appeal, concerning two proposed class actions by customers suing Coinbase. 

• Coinbase used an arbitration clause in its terms of service to dissuade customers from filing lawsuits against the company. One case was filed by a customer scammed out of $31,000 and wanted Coinbase to recredit him under the Electronic Funds Transfer Act. Another lawsuit was filed by two former Coinbase users who claimed they were duped into paying $100 each to enter a sweepstake offering prizes of up to $1.2 million in Dogecoin, an alternate cryptocurrency that at the time had virtually no value.
• While the U.S.’s Federal Arbitration Act requires agreements to pursue legal claims in the arbitration to be enforced, it is a chance for Supreme Court to clarify the approach further. The high court will take up the question of whether a party in a lawsuit can be forced to continue defending the case in federal district court even as it asks an appeals court to send the dispute to arbitration.