Coinbase Must Face Claims Over Dogecoin Sweepstakes Ads

By Elise Hansen (January 11, 2022, 8:07 PM EST) — Coinbase users who participated in a Dogecoin sweepstakes can pursue their allegations that Coinbase’s advertising of the sweepstakes was misleading, a California federal court said Tuesday.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Sallie Kim found that the users, led by David Suski, have adequately alleged that Coinbase misled them into believing they had to trade Dogecoin to enter the sweepstakes. Judge Kim also ruled that the dispute can proceed in court, rather than in arbitration, but dismissed, for now, claims that the sweepstakes constituted an illegal lottery.

Dogecoin, a digital asset featuring a Shiba Inu dog as its mascot, was created as a joke…