Poloniex, LLC, represented by Nelson Mullins attorneys Matthew Lindenbaum and Rob Lindholm, on Sept. 3 filed a motion to dismiss a sprawling putative class action lawsuit in the Southern District of New York alleging over $1.4 trillion in damages. The case, captioned In re Tether and Bitfinex Crypto Asset Litigation, was originally filed by Plaintiffs in 2019 and was amended in June 2020 to add crypto-exchanges Poloniex and Bittrex, Inc. Plaintiffs, on behalf of a class of all persons who purchased any crypto-asset from Feb. 17, 2015 to the present, allege Bitfinex and Tether, with the help of the Poloniex and Bittrex crypto-exchanges, manipulated the cryptocurrency market. Plaintiffs brought claims under the Sherman Antitrust Act, Commodities Exchange Act, and RICO and allege Tether issued billions of tether to itself and made strategically timed, massive purchases of crypto-assets on the Poloniex and Bittrex exchanges, causing the demand and prices for crypto-assets to spike and creating a bubble that ultimately wiped out $450 billion in value when it burst.

In its motion to dismiss, Poloniex argued that there are no sustainable allegations that Poloniex had any knowledge of or role in the alleged scheme and that each of the three claims fails as a matter of law.

The case has been designated by legal publisher Law360 as one of the big fintech cases to watch in 2020.

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