Nikhil Wahithe brother of the former Coinbase Global Inc COIN product manager Ishan Wahihas reportedly admitted in court to conducting trades based on confidential information about cryptocurrency exchanges.

What happened: On Monday, Nikhil Wahi pleaded guilty to referral fraud conspiracy charges – pressed by the Justice Department in July — in what U.S. prosecutors are calling the first cryptocurrency insider trading case, Reuters reported.

The pleading took place during a virtual court session before the US District Judge Loretta Preska in Manhattan.

Nikhil Wahi, who initially pleaded not guilty last month, said he understood his change of plea meant he would eventually be deported from the US and “lose everything I worked for,” according to Reuters.

Why it matters: However, Ishan Wahi has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to appear in court in March next year. Prosecutors allege that he disclosed classified information about new tokens prior to their official Coinbase listing announcement. This supposedly allowed his brother and friend, Sameer Ramani, Go long and profit on at least 14 occasions from June 2021 to April 2022.

The trio later used anonymous ether ETH/USD Wallets to acquire the soon-to-be-listed assets that sold after the Coinbase listing announcements, generating at least $1.5 million in profit.

“I knew that receiving confidential information from Coinbase and acting on that confidential information was wrong,” Nikhil Wahi said in court.

Photo Courtesy: Coinbase