Coinbase Inc. has launched a probe into possible insider trading that led the price of Bitcoin Cash to surge in the hours leading up to its official announcement of support for the cryptocurrency.

In a Medium post Tuesday, Coinbase Chief Executive Officer Brian Armstrong said that the exchange was specifically looking at whether employees or contractors profited from the Bitcoin Cash announcement by either trading the cryptocurrency or providing details to others that it was coming.

“All Coinbase employees and contractors were explicitly prohibited from trading Bitcoin Cash and from disclosing our launch plans over a month ago,” Armstrong wrote. “Given the price increase in the hours leading up the announcement, we will be conducting an investigation into this matter. If we find evidence of any employee or contractor violating our policies  —  directly or indirectly  —  I will not hesitate to terminate the employee immediately and take appropriate legal action.”

The evidence that something happened to cause the price of Bitcoin Cash to surge in the hours prior to the official announcement that Coinbase was adding support can be clearly seen in price charts. There was a spike in amounts of the cryptocurrency being acquired in the four hours leading up to the announcement. Although Bitcoin Cash, like bitcoin itself, has been subject to speculative trading before, the rapid uptick in both volume and price was nearly unprecedented, hence the suggestion that insider trading may have taken place.

Whether such activities fall foul of insider trading laws is another matter. “Insider trading laws mostly have to do with securities trading, but bitcoin is currently treated as a commodity,” Peter Van Valkenburgh, research director at Coin Center, told The Hill. “That doesn’t mean that this isn’t something that could violate laws, however. There’s laws against basic fraud and also market manipulation, and the [U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission] has jurisdiction over commodities spot markets if there is evidence of manipulation.”

Others aren’t so sure that the case of insider trading is quite as clear-cut either. TechCrunch noted that Coinbase had previously said it was aiming to launch Bitcoin Cash by Jan. 1 so there was already a pre-existing expectation that the launch would happen. Further, Coinbase is said to have added BCH support into its application programming interface three days prior to launch, complete with details posted on Reddit. That means that more than a few people were aware that the announcement was likely to be forthcoming.

Regardless of whether insider trading in Bitcoin Cash has occurred, investors remained bullish on the bitcoin alternative. The price sat near a record high of $3,787.04 as of 9:30 p.m. EST, according to Coinmarketcap.

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