Class action lawsuit against Binance for alleged damage to the FTX exchange prior to its collapse

A class action lawsuit was filed against Binance US (Binance.US) and Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao on October 2 in the Northern District Court of Northern California alleging various violations of federal and California unfair competition law for attempting to monopolize the cryptocurrency market by harming its competitor (FTX). ; The lawsuit was filed by Nir Lahav, identified only as a California resident.

At issue are posts made by Zhao on Twitter (X Now) in early November on the eve of the FTX collapse. Since the shares occurred simultaneously with the defendants' decision to liquidate their holdings in the FTT utility token on November 6, the plaintiffs estimated that Binance owned about 5% of all FTT tokens.

The lawsuit against Binance and Changpeng Zhao. Source: CourtListener The next day, Zhao said in a Twitter post that Binance had signed a letter of intent to acquire FTX, but backed out of that deal a day later.