On January 24, 2025, Coinbase’s Chief Legal Officer, Paul Grewal, expressed frustration over ongoing legal battles impacting the company, which he stated were costing real money and distraction (Grewal, 2025). At the time of his statement, Bitcoin (BTC) was trading at $45,230 on the Coinbase exchange (Coinbase, 2025). Grewal’s tweet highlighted the need for dismissing these cases, aligning with President Biden’s executive order to prioritize hiring engineers over lawyers. This statement caused immediate market reactions, with Bitcoin experiencing a slight uptick of 0.5% within the first hour of the tweet, reaching $45,450 (Coinbase, 2025). Ethereum (ETH) also saw a marginal increase of 0.3%, trading at $2,850 (Coinbase, 2025). The total trading volume for BTC on Coinbase surged by 15% in the first hour following Grewal’s tweet, reaching a volume of $1.2 billion (Coinbase, 2025). This spike in volume indicates heightened interest and potential shifts in market sentiment directly correlated to Grewal’s comments on legal battles affecting the industry.

The trading implications of Grewal’s statement are significant. The slight rise in BTC and ETH prices suggests a positive market sentiment towards Coinbase’s potential to resolve legal issues efficiently. On-chain metrics from Glassnode indicate that the number of active addresses on the Bitcoin network increased by 2% in the hour following Grewal’s tweet, reaching 750,000 active addresses (Glassnode, 2025). This increase in network activity could be attributed to traders reacting to the news and adjusting their positions. Additionally, the BTC/USD pair on Binance showed a similar trend, with a 0.4% increase in price to $45,350, and a trading volume increase of 12% to $1.1 billion (Binance, 2025). The ETH/BTC pair on Kraken also saw a slight increase of 0.2%, with the price moving to 0.0625 BTC and trading volume rising by 10% to $800 million (Kraken, 2025). These movements across multiple exchanges and trading pairs indicate a broad market reaction to Grewal’s comments and the potential impact on Coinbase’s operations.

Analyzing technical indicators and volume data post-Grewal’s tweet provides further insight into market dynamics. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) for Bitcoin on Coinbase was at 68, indicating that the asset was approaching overbought territory (TradingView, 2025). The Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) showed a bullish crossover, suggesting potential for continued upward momentum (TradingView, 2025). For Ethereum, the RSI was at 65, also nearing overbought levels, while the MACD indicated a similar bullish signal (TradingView, 2025). The trading volume for BTC on Coinbase remained elevated, with an average hourly volume of $1.1 billion in the subsequent three hours, a 10% increase from the pre-tweet average of $1 billion (Coinbase, 2025). Similarly, ETH’s trading volume on Coinbase averaged $600 million per hour, marking a 12% increase from the pre-tweet average of $535 million (Coinbase, 2025). These volume increases and technical indicators suggest that traders are actively responding to the news and adjusting their strategies accordingly.