Plaintiffs drop NY securities suits against 5 crypto firms, Binance and Tron still active

A number of folders and legal files representing dismissed lawsuits involving crypto companies

A so-called “new era in crypto litigation” suffered a setback when plaintiffs withdrew a slew of New York class action lawsuits against five crypto companies this week.

Last year, firms representing crypto investors filed 11 lawsuits against four exchanges and seven digital token issuers almost in unison.

They alleged the companies harmed investors by selling unlicensed securities and engaging in market manipulation. At the time, the move was seen as an effort to force firms to obey federal and state securities laws.

But Law360 reports five of those firms — Quantstamp, Status Research, Civic Technologies, HDR Global Trading, and Kaydex — were handed reprieves when plaintiffs voluntarily dismissed their proposed actions.

11 suits against #crypto companies could lead to a new era in #fintech litigation – Huge players in the space including @Binance and @Tronfoundation are among the cos. sued – Investors are rep'd by @SelendyGayLaw and @RCFLLP – @Law360 #CryptoNews https://t.co/kHe6LchRRj
— Philip Rosenstein (@parosenstein) April 13, 2020

The 11 suits caused a stir when they were filed about a year ago.

New York courts threw out similar crypto lawsuits

A fraud action against Bancor’s BProtocol Foundation was dismissed in February when the plaintiff couldn’t prove any damages were caused.

And a lawsuit that alleged crypto exchange Bibox sold unregistered securities was thrown out last month.

A judge ruled the complaint was filed more than 12 months after the tokens were traded — placing the ordeal outside the statute of limitations.

As for the original 11 actions filed last year, Roche Freedman filed many of them. Roche Freedman is one of the most prominent legal firms in the space.

Recently, Roche Freedman has worked on cases involving Ledger, Shopify, and Tether. The firm also made headlines last year when its founding partners went to war over $60 million in crypto paid as salaries.

However, a number of cases — including ones against prominent entities Binance, Kucoin, and Tron Foundation — remain active. The former filed a motion to dismiss theirs last December.

Edit 10:27 UTC, May 6: Clarified plaintiffs withdrew the cases in question after an earlier version said the court dismissed them directly. Headline has also been changed to reflect this. We apologize for the mistake.