A judge of the United States district court in California has dismissed the lawsuit brought against crypto derivative exchange FTX for market manipulation and the sale of unlicensed securities in the US.
As FortuneZ reported earlier, the lawsuit was filed by an entity called Bitcoin Manipulation Abatement LLC and demanded $150 million from the exchange in punitive and exemplary damages.
“Defendant Alameda Research LLC’s motion to dismiss Bitcoin Manipulation Abatement LLC’s Amended Complaint (the “Amended Complaint”) in the above-captioned action came on regularly for hearing before the Court on February 13, 2020,” the court order published on Thursday stated.
“After considering the papers submitted by the parties and the argument of counsel, the Court finds that plaintiff has failed to comply with the requirements of Fed. R. Civ. P. 9(b) or 8(a)(2), and that dismissal is warranted under Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(1) and 12(b)(6).”
A lawsuit with no strong grounds
The complaint also alleged that the FTX official ran unlicensed money transmitting business with its OTC desk and also accused the exchange of attempting an attack on Binance.
“Accordingly, Alameda Research LLC’s motion to dismiss is GRANTED, and the Amended Complaint is dismissed in its entirety with PREJUDICE,” the court order added.
@FTX_Official was just hit with a 150 mil lawsuit in California court. Charges include market manipulation, racketeering, unlicensed securities sale and more. pic.twitter.com/32PbtbvNF6
— Samuel McCulloch (@traders_insight) November 3, 2019
Binance’s outspoken founder and CEO, Changpeng Zhao, also came out to speak against the lawsuit, calling it “very far fetched.”
Alameda, the “incubator” of FTX, was also named on the complaint and but was not served.
Meanwhile, in August, the company raised $8 million in a seed funding round from well-known crypto venture capitals including Proof-of-Capital, and Consensus Lab.
