Point on insider trading law that the inimitable Matt Levine writes about frequently: The law is not about fairness, but about theft (of inside information). I

Point on insider trading law that the inimitable Matt Levine writes about frequently: The law is not about fairness, but about theft (of inside information). In particular, it is illegal to misappropriate someone else's information you come across to do insider trading for your own benefit. But it is not illegal for someone to use their own information to trade on. In this case, Coinbase published a list of coins that it might list. As I understand it, it would be illegal if some employee of Coinbase bought these coins prior to the release for his own account (thereby misappropriating the information). But if Coinbase bought them for their account, and then released the list, and then made money on the subsequent rise, that would be perfectly legal. See for example here: https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-03-13/you-have-to-pay-the-right-person https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-03-13/you-ha...