Class action against Binance is aimed at futures trading on the exchange

A group of Italian and international investors have filed a class action lawsuit against the major crypto exchange, Binance, accusing the company of violating its own futures trading rules.

In an announcement on Tuesday, Italy-based legal and advisory firm Lexia LEXIA Avvocati said it would take legal action against Binance to recover damage from futures trading on cryptocurrency exchanges. On behalf of a group of investors, the company and the Swiss Blockchain Association accused Binance of violating their rules for trading crypto derivatives and of temporarily malfunctioning the platform.

According to local news agency Milano Finanza, the lawsuit focuses on the crypto exchange going offline for several hours on different days – such as on February 8, when Elon Musk announced that Tesla had sold $ 1.5 billion in Bitcoin ( BTC). Investors in the class action claim they lost “tens of millions” of dollars because they were unable to manage trading positions and see their balances. They are also calling for similar blackouts on April 18, May 5, May 19, May 28 and June 4 as a basis for compensation.

While Binance reportedly allowed users affected by the outage to seek compensation, Lexia said the exchange was offering a “bad amount” to its customers who rejected the “ridiculous” proposal. The law firm said investors would be willing to dismiss the lawsuit if Binance duly compensated them before July 12, while warning that it would seek regulatory restrictions on the exchange in the European Union and Switzerland.

Connected: Recent class action lawsuit could cost Binance billions of dollars

Legal action comes because the Thai Securities and Exchange Commission and the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority recently announced regulatory action against Binance to operate their respective laws in the region without the appropriate license. In March, news outlets reported that the exchange could also be investigated by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission for potential deals from US clients.

Cointelegraph asked Lexia for a comment but had received no response at the time of publication. This story can be updated.