Just four days after the Commodity Futures Trading Commission brought a highly-publicized suit against Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange is facing another high-profile legal challenge.
Late on the evening of March 31, the Moscowitz Law Firm and Boies Schiller Flexner, home to super-attorney David Boies, filed a class action suit that targets Binance, its founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ)—the world’s leading spokesman for the crypto industry—and hoops star Jimmy Butler of the Miami Heat.
Adam Moscowitz, founding and managing partner of the Moscowitz Law Firm, discussed the suit with Fortune shortly after the filing, made in the Southern District of Florida.
The law firms previously teamed up to bring a class action against Voyager, which subsequently went bankrupt, and two suits tied to the failure of FTX. The first of the latter targeted celebrities who served as the exchange’s highly-paid brand ambassadors, a roster that included comedian Larry David, basketballers Shaquille O’Neal and Steph Curry, and football legend Tom Brady. In mid-March, Moscowitz Law and Boies Schiller sued eight compensated “influencers” for promoting FTT, FTX’s native coin. That suit alleges that the influencers are liable for customer losses on the collapsed coin because it qualified as an “unregistered security.”
The new action against Binance rests on the same basic assertion: that the exchange was trading cryptocurrencies that are in reality unregistered securities, and that social media influencers paid by Binance promoted these instruments unlawfully. “This is a classic example of a centralized exchange, which is promoting the sale of an unregistered security,” charges the complaint. The suit seeks damages in excess of $ ..
Support the originator by clicking the read the rest link below.
