Tezos Foundation Attempts to Settle $25 Million Consolidated Lawsuit

The Tezos Foundation moved to settle its $25M consolidated class-action lawsuit on March 20, after over two years of fighting in court.

The foundation published a post on its official website, claiming to have opted for settling due to the time and financial expense incurred through continuing proceedings.

“It was decided that the one-time financial cost of a settlement was preferable to the distractions and legal costs associated with continuing to fight in the courts,” the foundation maintains.

The settlement proceedings are now pending court approval.

Tezos denies any wrongdoing in its $232 million ICO

After running its then-record $232 million initial coin offering (ICO) in July 2017, lawsuits against Tezos started to multiply quickly — with date of its token distribution being postponed amid a legal dispute between the cryptocurrency developers and the foundation’s then-president over control of the project’s funds.

In January 2018, several plaintiffs accusing Tezos of distributing unregistered securities decided to consolidate their cases against Tezos, and the consolidation was granted by the court on April 3, 2018.

Tezos’ council states that it did not release unregistered securities, commenting on the lawsuit:

“The Tezos Foundation chose to settle all claims because the Tezos Foundation believes it is in the best interest of the Tezos project and community as a whole. The Foundation continues to believe the lawsuits were meritless and continues to deny any wrongdoing.”

By settling, Tezos avoids the risk of getting the claim about its ICO as a securities offering approved by the court.

Tezos Foundation wields $635 billion

Since running its record-breaking ICO, Tezos’ assets have almost tripled in value: accroding to the foundation’s March 9 biennial report, it holds $635 million in assets.

The report also showed that the foundation has distributed $37.6 million in grants for the Tezos (XTZ) network since August 2019.