A United States appeals court breathed new life into a class action lawsuit against Binance.US. Three judges allowed the case about the alleged HEX token manipulation to proceed.
According to the details in the case summary, the US appeals court found that the plaintiff, Ryan Cox’s claims against Binance.US and CoinMarketCap were valid under the Commodity Exchange Act. A panel of three judges has now reversed the dismissal of the class action lawsuit, which claims that Binance.US allegedly manipulated the price of the HEX token.
Court rules it has jurisdiction in the HEX manipulation case
According to the initial claims from the lawsuit, Cox stated that Binance.US and Binance Capital Management manipulated the price of HEX by lowering its ranking on CoinMarketCap. Cox claimed that this price manipulation caused the price of HEX to crash, which benefited the defendants.
The lawsuit was initially dismissed by the United States District Court of Arizona. The court had cited the lack of personal jurisdiction and stated that Cox had to show details to back his claim that the defendants had sufficient contacts with Arizona.
However, after the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reviewed the case, the court reversed the earlier decision.
“The court concluded that the district court had personal jurisdiction over the U.S. defendants, CoinMarketCap and Binance.US, because they had sufficient contacts with the United States,” stated the case summary.
The court also identified that Cox’s claims against the defendants were also valid under the Commodity Exchange Act, which led to the decision to pursue further proceedings.
HEX price has plummeted since ATH
The complaint alleged that based on HEX’s market cap in September 2020, the token should have been ranked in the top 20 market cap list. However, the coin was ranked at #201 at the time.
The HEX token has endured a dramatic dump since its all-time high in November 2021. The token has lost 99.8% of its value from its ATH of $0.5561. The token is priced in the $0.0011 range with a market cap of $640 million. According to CoinMarketCap data, the token is currently ranked #3521 per market cap rankings.