PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield filed a lawsuit on Friday against Coinbase, one of the largest cryptocurrency platforms in the United States, alleging the company promoted and sold high-risk investments.

In the lawsuit, Rayfield alleges the company violated Oregon securities law by encouraging the sale of unregistered cryptocurrencies to Oregonians.

According to Rayfield, Coinbase gained millions of dollars in fees while Oregonians often faced “devastating” losses in a market that’s “stacked against them,” and difficult to navigate.

“After building trust with Oregon consumers, Coinbase sold high-risk investments without them being properly vetted to protect consumers,” Rayfield said in a statement on Friday. “Oregonians lost money, and we believe Coinbase should be held accountable and take steps to protect consumers.”

In one example, the Internet Computer Protocol cryptocurrency – which the Securities and Exchange Commission previously identified as an unregistered security – dropped in price from $700 to $72 in one month after launching on Coinbase, according to Rayfield, noting, the coin now trades at around $7 a share – wiping out billions of dollars in investors’ money.

“You don’t go in for a medical procedure without knowing the risks. It’s the same for everyday folks who want to invest in cryptocurrency,” said Rayfield. “I am committed to protecting Oregon’s investors so they’re not taken advantage of.”

In response to the lawsuit, Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal published a blog on Friday, calling Rayfield’s lawsuit “meritless,” pledging, “Coinbase will do whatever is required to beat it.”

“But no lawsuit is harmless,” Grewal wrote. “In fact, Oregon’s lawsuit directly undermines constructive policymaking happening in DC. Bipartisan momentum has never been stronger to pass comprehensive federal legislation for digital assets—legislation that would enable domestic crypto businesses to thrive while preventing rogue state governments from bringing politically motivated actions against crypto firms. Yet instead of waiting for Democrats and Republicans in Congress to enact clear rules of the road, Oregon has taken it upon itself to try to regulate a worldwide industry through enforcement.”

“Oregon’s holdout campaign is obstruction for the sake of obstruction. It is a desperate scheme that does nothing to move the crypto conversation forward, and in fact takes us a giant leap backwards from hard-won progress,” Grewal continued.

The chief legal officer added, “Coinbase customers in Oregon and elsewhere can rest easy—we remain business as usual in the state and we are prepared to see this case, like others, through as far as necessary. We do not and will never shrink from fighting injustice, and we will never stop standing up for our customers and the industry.”

Oregon’s lawsuit against Coinbase comes after the SEC dropped its case against the crypto company in February under the Trump administration.

The SEC initially filed the lawsuit against Coinbase, claiming the company “flouted its rules and facilitated trading in at least 13 crypto tokens that it said should have been registered as securities,” as reported by Reuters.

However, the SEC decided to drop the case because of the pending work by the Crypto Task Force, which the Trump administration launched on Inauguration Day. According to the SEC, the task force aims to develop a regulatory framework for crypto assets.

“As everyone knows, the war against crypto waged by the previous SEC and its allies is over—crypto won. The SEC finally caught up with the reality that the vast majority of digital assets are not securities—and that there is widespread public support for this revolutionary technology. At last, the US showed it was ready to turn the page on that dark, misguided chapter of unlawfully targeting the industry,” Grewal wrote in the blog. “But Oregon’s Attorney General refuses to face that reality and is trying to fight the same war all over again.”

According to Attorney General Rayfield, after the SEC dropped its case against Coinbase, the agency reassigned the lawyer leading the case to the SEC’s IT team, noting, “States must fill enforcement vacuum being left by federal regulators who are abandoning these cases under Trump administration.”