Crypto Lawyer Kyle Roche Pulls Out of Lawsuits Against Tether, Binance and Others

By Mat Di Salvo

High-profile crypto attorney Kyle Roche has withdrawn from several class action suits against Binance and other major crypto companies, just days after the release of leaked videos in which he discussed his relationships with crypto clients over drinks.

Roche was the counsel on cases brought against companies including Tether, Bitfinex, Tron Foundation, HDR Global Trading (which operates as BitMEX), and Binance—all major players in the crypto space. New court documents reveal that the lawyer filed motions to withdraw from many of the cases today. According to the filings, Roche is pulling out of his own firm's class action practice, though the practice will continue.

The move comes after self-proclaimed whistleblower website Crypto Leaks published videos showing Roche discussing his close relationship with Ava Labs, the company behind the Avalanche blockchain. The web site alleged that Roche was paid to damage Avalanche competitors like Solana.

Kyle Roche wrote on Medium on Monday that the videos were “illegally obtained, highly edited video clips that are not presented with accurate context" and were part of a "deliberate scheme to intoxicate, and then exploit me, using leading questions."

As noted by Bloomberg Law, Roche launched his firm Roche Freedman three years ago with fellow alums of the firm Boies Schiller. David Boies is best known for representing Al Gore in Gore v. Bush in 2000, and more recently has represented a slew of controversial clients including DraftKings, Theranos, and Harvey Weinstein.

Meanwhile, Ava Labs founder and CEO Emin Gün Sirer called the Crypto Leaks claims “obvious nonsense" and “lies”—and denied having a relationship with Kyle Roche. The previous two "cases" posted on Crypto Leaks, both in June, were about alleged unfair attacks against blockchain project Dfinity.

Roche and law firm Roche Freedman have not responded to Decrypt’s request for a comment.

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