Binance wins dismissal of class action over 2018 tokens that tanked
A federal judge has dismissed a class action complaint asserting Binance violated U.S. securities laws by not registering as a broker-dealer or exchange, and sold crypto tokens which were not registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The original complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York was brought by a group of investors who say they invested in the tokens EOS, BNT, SNT, QSP, KNC, TRX, FUN, ICX, OMG, LEND, ELF, and CVC around 2017 and 2018. An amended complaint was filed, only listing nine tokens, with BNT, SMT, and CVC removed.
The investors said the tokens had lost much of their value since purchasing, and were seeking compensation for the price paid for the tokens and the fees paid to Binance in connection with their purchases.
The investors further claimed that Binance capitalized on the enthusiasm brought on by cryptocurrencies, marketing tokens and initial coin offerings (ICOs) on behalf of projects, and profited off the associated trading fees, and added they “purchased the tokens with a reasonable expectation of profit from owning them”.
In his decision on Thursday, March 31st, Judge Andrew L. Carter said that as the investors waited more than a year after purchasing the tokens to file the complaint, they had sued too late. Most of the tokens were purchased in 2018 and the original filing wasn’t until April 2020.
The investors argued that as the SEC published a framework asserting digital tokens were securities in April 2020, that the timeline for complaint submission should have started then, but Carter found that the relevant laws apply when the supposed violation occurs, not when it is detected.
Judge Carter also said that domestic securities laws are
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