Cryptocurrencies

Binance among top crypto firms to be hit by securities lawsuit

A wrath of class-action lawsuits hit a number of major cryptocurrency firms on Friday with the likes of Binance CEO Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao and Civic’s Vinny Lingham being accused of selling unregistered securities to US investors.

As reported by OffShoreAlert, a total of 11 complaints were filed against of 42 parties across the entire cryptocurrency industry.

Other firms included in the lawsuit aside from Binance include: BitMEX operator HDR Global Trading, Tron, Civic and Kyber Network.

The complaint against Binance states: “Binance and the Issuers wrongfully engaged in millions of transactions—including the solicitation, offer, and sale of securities—without registering the Tokens as securities, and without Binance registering with the SEC as an exchange or broker-dealer.

“As a result, investors were not informed of the significant risks inherent in these investments, as federal and state securities laws require.”

The Securities and Exchange Commission has been clamping down on cryptocurrency firms over the past two years, slapping EOS with a $24 million fine over its $4 billion Initial Coin Offering (ICO) in 2018.

It also issued fines to two other ICO’s, Airfox and Paragon, with both companies having to refund investors more than $10 million in late 2018.

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Oliver Knight

Londoner ‘Ollie’ graduated from Birmingham City University with a journalism degree in 2016. He combines his writing with his love of crypto and blockchain here at Coin Rivet, saying “It disrupts well-established institutions (banks) while giving an avenue to the less fortunate to achieve financial freedom.” Like all true Londoners, his pet hate is… “People standing on the left-hand side of the escalators on the Tube!”.