The Race to Lead 3 Class-Action Suits Against Bitfinex Over 2017 BTC Bull Run Is On

One legal team looks to lead the three ongoing suits against IFinex alleging that illegal conduct involving iFinex’s subsidiaries Tether and Bitfinex was behind Bitcoin’s (BTC) 2017 bull run.

Per a Jan. 13 filing with the court of the Southern District of New York (SDNY), the counsel for Eric Young, Adam Kurtz and David Crystal are asking to be deemed “Interim Lead Counsel” for a number of parties filing similar class-action suits. Young et al are represented by law firms Radice and Kirby McInerney.

Meaning of the new classification for the case

Such a classification would make Young’s counsel the flagship of a trio of class-action suits against iFinex that also includes Leibowitz et al v. iFinex — originally filed in October — and Laubus et al v. iFinex. It would, moreover, put them at the head of a more general “class” of those similarly situated as having lost money due to iFinex’s alleged market manipulation, which is a potentially massive group of Bitcoin investors.

As Young’s legal team argues, their case

“Contains expert analyses and original statistical analyses that are not found in the Leibowitz Complaint. Further, Kirby and Radice possess extensive, specialized experience representing parties in data-intensive financial, commodities, and antitrust class actions.”

Who will lead the class?

Karen Lerner, a partner at Kirby McInerney spearheading the case, told Cointelegraph that

“Interim class counsel will be responsible for protecting the interests of the class at this stage. That can include representing the class through motions, conducting discovery, and eventually moving for class certification.”

Lerner reiterated the assertion in the recent filings that Kirby McInterney’s experience both in this general area of law and particularly in assembling expert analysis for the allegations were working in favor of their spearheading the class action.

Shifting jurisdictions and the history of the accusations

As Cointelegraph reported last week, Young et al refiled their case from Washington State to SDNY, only to be followed the next day by Laubus’s case, which copied much of the language from Young’s complaint.

IFinex, for its part, has responded to the allegations with strong language. Upon Young’s initially filing in Washington in November, subsidiaries Bitfinex and Tether dubbed the accusations “mercenary and baseless” in simultaneously published posts on their respective websites.

Suspicion as to Tether’s role in manipulating the bull market for BTC in 2017 date back to research originally published in June 2018.