We previously reported how multiple class action lawsuits were filed in the Southern District of New York on April 3, 2020 against a variety of crypto exchanges and token issuers, including Block.one. One of these cases was dismissed, which resulted in five more being withdrawn. The case against Block.one has now been settled.
At the height of the 2017-18 ICO craze, Block.one raised a record $ 4 billion with its ICO, much of it at a time before its flagship product – the blockchain platform eos.ios – even went live. It sold a billion tokens: 90% to the ICO participants and 10% to the Block.one team. The SEC sued Block.one for selling unregistered securities. That lawsuit was settled in 2019, with the company paying $ 24 million. The April 2020 class action lawsuit against Block.one alleged the company engaged in unregistered securities trading, misled investors and improperly directed funds to its Hong Kong trading arm. The lawsuit also alleged that such inappropriate behavior resulted in a sharp drop in the price of the tokens. Block.one moved to dismiss the lawsuit on the grounds, among other things, that the token sales took place outside of the United States. This application is still pending.
As part of the settlement, Block.one will pay $ 27.5 million to end the case, pending court approval. In announcing the settlement, the company made the following statement: “Block.one believes this lawsuit was unfounded and filled with numerous inaccuracies. However, by adopting this settlement, we can focus more time and energy on running our business and delivering new products. ”That is exactly what the company appears to be doing, as Cointelegraph has reported that Block.one has plans to start a cryptocurrency exchange with the Announced the name “Bullish Global”. It has reportedly raised $ 10 billion for the crypto exchange.
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