Class-action lawsuits filed against 11 Bitcoin/cryptocurrency companies

[squatter]

The same litigation firm behind the Bitfinex market manipulation lawsuit and the Kleiman suit against Craig Wright is at it again.

They just named Binance, BitMEX, Block.One (EOS), TRON, Civic, and several others in lawsuits filed in the Southern District of New York:

They all allege that the token issuers took advantage of the market’s lack of understanding and awareness of how cryptocurrencies worked. And they sold these illegal securities to US citizens.

The suits assert that the companies pitched their tokens as utilities, which did not need to be registered as securities. Many of the companies compared their tokens to Bitcoin and Ether (the native token of Ethereum), which do not need to be registered as securities. It wasn’t apparent to the investors that these tokens needed to be registered with the SEC, the lawsuits claim.

I always knew lawsuits like this were coming for token issuers. I'm a little surprised to see BitMEX lumped in with the others for offering derivative markets.

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[hugeblack]

They all allege that the token issuers took advantage of the market’s lack of understanding and awareness of how cryptocurrencies worked. And they sold these alleged illegal securities to US citizens.

From this phrase, do I understand that they allege these companies because some users are unaware of how these tokens work? Or their ignorance or delusion that they are illegal securities? The law does not protect the dupes.
I thought that the lawsuits would be limited to manipulating the value, publishing false information or defrauding the citizens, but the user made the investment without looking enough, so how can we blame the exchange for its loss? Does this mean that citizens are involved in the crime of possessing illegal securities?

[avikz]

They all allege that the token issuers took advantage of the market’s lack of understanding and awareness of how cryptocurrencies worked. And they sold these alleged illegal securities to US citizens.

From this phrase, do I understand that they allege these companies because some users are unaware of how these tokens work? Or their ignorance or delusion that they are illegal securities? The law does not protect the dupes.
I thought that the lawsuits would be limited to manipulating the value, publishing false information or defrauding the citizens, but the user made the investment without looking enough, so how can we blame the exchange for its loss? Does this mean that citizens are involved in the crime of possessing illegal securities?

Perfect! That's another way to look at it!

The case has been filed in US courts against token issuers from various other countries. Sorry to say that. the US counterparts will be suffering the consequences while the other countries will just show the middle finger to it! I think these group of lawyers are trying to become the crypto GOD by filing public interest litigation that may work against the entire crypto market.

[gentlemand]

I think these group of lawyers are trying to become the crypto GOD by filing public interest litigation that may work against the entire crypto market.

I asked in the other thread but no one answered, how do things like this work? Do they create and initiate these things themselves and then recruit the public to join in? Have any of these things vs crypto companies been resolved and if so did the initiator win?

[hugeblack]

The case has been filed in US courts against token issuers from various other countries. Sorry to say that. the US counterparts will be suffering the consequences while the other countries will just show the middle finger to it! I think these group of lawyers are trying to become the crypto GOD by filing public interest litigation that may work against the entire crypto market.

It is an attempt to revive the hopes of people who lost their money in cryptos. The positive side of it is raising awareness or providing more strict laws to fight such a scam.
If a legal framework for cryptos is established, you will find that most of these tokens are worthless.

If they have a voice, perhaps a change will take us forward.

[bitmover]

They all allege that the token issuers took advantage of the market’s lack of understanding and awareness of how cryptocurrencies worked. And they sold these alleged illegal securities to US citizens.

From this phrase, do I understand that they allege these companies because some users are unaware of how these tokens work? Or their ignorance or delusion that they are illegal securities? The law does not protect the dupes.

I think that as there are so many scams out there, and those companies like Bitmex, binance, etc know (or at least should know) that some of them are scams, they could be responsible.

It is a lawsuit, they have not been condemned yet.


These kind of lawsuit are more often than most people think in financial markets.

For example, the biggest company in Brazil, a stated owened oil company Petrobras, is under a legal lawsuit because the CEO knew about corruption and did nothing to stop. Investors are demanding money, because companies stocks crashed and the CEO lied about corruption. The investors said that if the CEO said there was corruption, they wouldn't have bought... something like that.

[amishmanish]

So they are basically filing case against centralized exchanges possibly on behalf of rich investors who lost money by investing in the likes of EOS, SNT etc. etc. These are all tokens that were sold to investors in return of promises of establishing new industries on the web. For example, the people who invested in EOS were promised the moon while now it is basically a shit-show of PoS delegates etc. bribing people to vote while taking the block reward and selling it back to people using these exchanges.

These people claimed that they will invest the money to build some sort of mega-enterprises. They later used that hype to continue circulating these shitcoins and milk people for more money in the name of trading. Could this finally be the end of ICOs that promise everything under the sky without delivering anything. The less said about stuff like TRON, the better.

I would like to see reactions from Vinny Lingham of Civic though. The guy is pretty vocal on twitter. Lets see what his take is. Also, lets not make it about authorities vs crypto. From Bitcoin's viewpoint, these centralized exchanges and these tokens may as well crash and burn.

[NeuroticFish]

The same litigation firm

I think that they didn't lose a penny because of those ICOs/tokens.
I think that they've simply sniffed the smell of money and try to make a case in a way at least one of those exchanges will pay them a fat amount as settlement.
They are seeing crypto space as a cow to be milked. Same as CSW does.
 

[amishmanish]

I think that they didn't lose a penny because of those ICOs/tokens.
I think that they've simply sniffed the smell of money and try to make a case in a way at least one of those exchanges will pay them a fat amount as settlement.
They are seeing crypto space as a cow to be milked. Same as CSW does.
 

There are multiple individuals behind the lawsuit. Even if they did not lose money, this still raises the valid question about what exactly are those ICO's doing with the millions raised from citizens across the globe? Or atleast i hope it goes that way for a bit. The out-of-court settlement is always a plausible scenario and then it'll be the same story of lawyers making money, no matter who wins. Yet, In the faketoshi case, the multiple lies from him were exposed and the court/ media at least widely recognized his fake and forged submissions.

Tthe litigation is clearly contradicting centralized issues tokens against bitcoin which could also be a net positive.

[avikz]

I think these group of lawyers are trying to become the crypto GOD by filing public interest litigation that may work against the entire crypto market.

I asked in the other thread but no one answered, how do things like this work? Do they create and initiate these things themselves and then recruit the public to join in? Have any of these things vs crypto companies been resolved and if so did the initiator win?

Any individual can file a PIL (public interest litigation) in the court of law. It can be initiated by anyone. It is even easier for the lawyers because they know the legal nitty gritty. They don't need others to join in.

It's like an appeal to the court from an individual where the individual believes something illegal had happened and that individual is requesting the court to take up this matter. In most cases where public money is involved, court doesn't reject the PIL.

I don't know what happened in the past because I don't think we have seen a PIL in crypto space yet. This is going to be the first one.

[Harlot]

I posted this in the same topic on the press section. I can clearly say that this is some kind of "ambulance chasing" done by a well known firm on crypto litigation. They clearly have the resources to get complainants all over the world just to sue several crypto businesses and projects on something they think is illegal. I don't even think that this complainants are aware that they can do this kinds of cases to chase the projects if not this firm being the one on knocking on them first. Simply this exchanges who are being sued right now because of listing specific ICOs is ridiculous to think that it even exists. Crypto exchanges aren't like stock exchange where a company needs to undergo a certain process under the SEC in order to get listed, in most cases if it's not the exchange itself listing the crypto independently the crypto project will be the one asking for them. It has been this way for a long time and you don't need a special license for you to do it.

[figmentofmyass]

I think that they didn't lose a penny because of those ICOs/tokens.
I think that they've simply sniffed the smell of money and try to make a case in a way at least one of those exchanges will pay them a fat amount as settlement.
They are seeing crypto space as a cow to be milked. Same as CSW does.

There are multiple individuals behind the lawsuit. Even if they did not lose money, this still raises the valid question about what exactly are those ICO's doing with the millions raised from citizens across the globe?

tbh, i don't feel bad for these "victims". we have a strong ethic of "buyer beware" in crypto. ICOs are a voluntary exchange between company and investor. i don't appreciate do-gooders trying to destroy companies and extract whatever money they can from them. and i certainly don't appreciate these idiots who made shitty investments and are trying to get bailed out now through the courts.

it's disgraceful behavior by ambulance chasing law firms and idiots who flushed their money down the toilet.

[NeuroticFish]

Tthe litigation is clearly contradicting centralized issues tokens against bitcoin which could also be a net positive.

I don't deny that neither the ICO companies, nor the exchanges are 100% clean, at least morally, although the legislation may have been not existing or not clear.
And yes, we need proper laws in this sector too and everybody following them. But such a lawsuit may not actually bring any significant advance in the matter and I still think it's just low.