Block.one ICO damages ‘far beyond’ $22M, ENF founder says
The latest legal action against Block.one (B1), the creator and original seller of EOS (EOS), could potentially help plaintiffs get higher compensation, according to EOS Network Foundation (ENF) founder and CEO Yves La Rose.
On July 25, La Rose officially announced that ENF is preparing a lawsuit against Block.one for its failure to follow through on its $1-billion following its $4.1-billion raise in 2018.
The CEO argued that Block.one’s broken promises to invest $1 billion caused major issues for the EOS community and promised to hold the firm accountable.
As many investors have already been part of another class action against Block.one, a number of those might need to opt out of their current lawsuits, La Rose said.
“They would do that if they aren’t satisfied with the current settlement offer and believe their interests are better suited by opting out, which is a common practice,” the ENF founder told Cointelegraph.
La Rose added that opting out of an old class lawsuit could result in “obtaining a higher payout,” but it could also result in receiving nothing.
“There are no guarantees, which is why this is a personal choice they need to make,” the ENF founder noted, reiterating that the firm recommends any person consult their own legal counsel to determine which path is best for them.
La Rose also emphasized that the amount of settlement in the current class action might not be enough for those who were affected. He stated:
“Not everyone is covered in the current class, and so this new contemplated action also widens the pool of potential participants. Also, the measly $22 million that Block.one offered is pathetic. The damages caused on a $4-billion raise are far beyond what is being offered in reparations.”
Block.one’s EOS initial coin offering (ICO) became one of the largest crowdfunding raises in history, raising as much as $4.1 billion by June 2018 and outstripping Telegram’s $1.7 billion ICO.
By the end of its year-long crowdsale, EOS was trading at around $12, or around 44% down from its peak price recorded in April 2018. The cryptocurrency then experienced a couple of ups and downs, eventually plummeting all the way down below $1. At the time of writing, EOS is trading at $0.74, down roughly 30% over the past year.
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Despite a massive decline, EOS is still one of the biggest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, which amounts to $827 million at the time of writing. That makes the EOS cryptocurrency the 54th largest coin by market value, according to CoinGecko.
In 2019, Block.one agreed to pay a $24-million civil fine to settle with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission over charges that it held an unregistered ICO. A few months later, disgruntled investors started a class-action lawsuit against Block.one, arguing that the firm deceived tokenholders about its financial history, operations and budget, as well as executive compensation, material trends, risk factors and others.
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Millionaire Tory donor Malcolm Offord has defected to Reform UK, saying he would be campaigning “tirelessly” to “remove this rotten SNP government”.
Nigel Farage announced the former Conservative life peer’s defection during a rally in the Scottish town of Falkirk, where regular anti-immigration protests have taken place outside the Cladhan Hotel – which is being used to house asylum seekers.
Mr Farage, Reform UK’s leader, said he was “delighted” to welcome Greenock-born Lord Offord to Reform, describing his defection as “a brave and historic act”.
He added: “He will take Reform UK Scotland to a new level.”
During a speech, Lord Offord, who previously donated nearly £150,000 to the Tories, said he would be quitting the Conservative Party and giving up his place in the House of Lords as he prepares to campaign for a seat in Holyrood in May.
The 61-year-old said he wanted to restore Scotland to a “prosperous, happy, healthy country”.
“Scotland needs Reform and Reform is coming to Scotland,” he told the rally.
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“Today I can announce that I am resigning from the Conservative Party. Today I am joining Reform UK and today I announce my intention to stand for Reform in the Holyrood election in May next year.
“And that means that from today, for the next five months, day and night, I shall be campaigning with all of you tirelessly for two objectives.
“The first objective is to remove this rotten SNP government after 18 years, and the second is to present a positive vision for Scotland inside the UK, to restore Scotland to being a prosperous, proud, healthy and happy country.”
The latest defection comes as Mr Farage finds himself at the centre of allegations of racism dating back to his time in school.
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Claims made against Nigel Farage
Sky News reported on Saturday that a former schoolfriend of Mr Farage claimed he sang antisemitic songs to Jewish schoolmates – and had a “big issue with anyone called Patel”.
Jean-Pierre Lihou, 61, was initially friends with the Reform UK leader when he arrived at Dulwich College in the 1970s, at the time when Mr Farage is accused of saying antisemitic and other racist remarks by more than a dozen pupils.
Mr Farage has said he “never directly racially abused anybody” at Dulwich and said there is a “strong political element” to the allegations coming out 49 years later.
Reform’s deputy leader Richard Tice has called the ex-classmates “liars”.
A Reform UK spokesman accused Sky News of “scraping the barrel” and being “desperate to stop us winning the next election”.
The European Commission’s proposal to expand the powers of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) is raising concerns about the centralization of the bloc’s licensing regime, despite signaling deeper institutional ambitions for its capital markets structure.
On Thursday, the Commission published a package proposing to “direct supervisory competences” for key pieces of market infrastructure, including crypto-asset service providers (CASPs), trading venues and central counterparties to ESMA, Cointelegraph reported.
Concerningly, the ESMA’s jurisdiction would extend to both the supervision and licensing of all European crypto and financial technology (fintech) firms, potentially leading to slower licensing regimes and hindering startup development, according to Faustine Fleuret, head of public affairs at decentralized lending protocol Morpho.
“I am even more concerned that the proposal makes ESMA responsible for both the authorisation and the supervision of CASPs, not only the supervision,” she told Cointelegraph.
The proposal still requires approval from the European Parliament and the Council, which are currently under negotiation.
If adopted, ESMA’s role in overseeing EU capital markets would more closely resemble the centralized framework of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, a concept first proposed by European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde in 2023.
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EU plan to centralize licensing under ESMA creates crypto and fintech slowdown concerns
The proposal to “centralize” this oversight under a single regulatory body seeks to address the differences in national supervisory practices and uneven licensing regimes, but risks slowing down overall crypto industry development, Elisenda Fabrega, general counsel at Brickken asset tokenization platform, told Cointelegraph.
“Without adequate resources, this mandate may become unmanageable, leading to delays or overly cautious assessments that could disproportionately affect smaller or innovative firms.”
“Ultimately, the effectiveness of this reform will depend less on its legal form and more on its institutional execution,” including ESMA’s operational capacity, independence and cooperation “channels” with member states, she said.
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The broader package aims to boost wealth creation for EU citizens by making the bloc’s capital markets more competitive with those of the US.
The US stock market is worth approximately $62 trillion, or 48% of the global equity market, while the EU stock market’s cumulative value sits around $11 trillion, representing 9% of the global share, according to data from Visual Capitalist.
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