12 Big Class-Action Lawsuits in Crypto: What, Who, How and Why - Ep.121

Stephen Palley, partner at Anderson Kill and chair of the firm’s technology, media and distributed systems practice group, explains what the 11 recent class-action lawsuits against ICO issuers from 2017 and exchanges were about, who brought them, who the defendants are, and what hurdles they face, especially regarding jurisdiction. He also discusses why some prominent individuals in crypto, such as Changepeng Zhao, the CEO of Binance, Brendan Blumer, CEO of Block.One, Arthur Hayes, CEO and cofounder of BitMEX, among others, were named, and how the "control person" theory of liability will play a role in the claims. We also dive into the lawsuit for $28 million against Maker Foundation over Black Thursday losses, and the attempt by MKR governance token holders to force Maker participants to agree to indemnify the Maker Foundation. 

Thank you to our sponsor! 

Crypto.com: https://crypto.com

Episode links: 

Stephen Palley: https://twitter.com/stephendpalley

The Block: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/

The Block article on lawsuits: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/60930/top-crypto-exchanges-token-issuers-named-in-friday-barrage-of-u-s-class-action-lawsuits

Offshore Alert on lawsuits: https://www.offshorealert.com/class-action-complaints-against-cryptocurrency-firms-alleging-unregistered-sale-of-securities.aspx

CoinDesk article summarizing the lawsuits: https://www.coindesk.com/top-crypto-firms-including-binance-civic-tron-targeted-in-flood-of-lawsuits

The Block on lawsuit against the Maker Foundation: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/61797/maker-foundation-class-action-lawsuit-black-thursday

CoinDesk article on class-action lawsuit against the Maker Foundation: https://www.coindesk.com/makerdao-users-sue-stablecoin-issuer-following-black-thursday-losses

Indemnity vote: https://vote.makerdao.com/polling-proposal/qmwfvvguaf8rz8xwgv2cqnzzt9t5h6epzh17qmk2ue99y4

Links from news recap:

https://unchainedpodcast.com/covidbnsdcep/