Ava Labs founder awarded $3M in crypto defamation suit

Ava Labs laminitis and CEO Emin Gün Sirer has reportedly won a defamation suit against a crypto influencer, awarding him $3 cardinal successful damages.

The suit stemmed from claims made successful a February 2021 YouTube video by crypto influencer Emre Aksoy linking Sirer to an Islamist radical the Turkish authorities calls the Fethullah Terrorist Organization (FETO).

Askoy told his ample YouTube pursuing that Sirer was a radical member, directing them to abbreviated the Avalanche (AVAX) token. According to Sirer, the defamation outgo him millions and crashed the terms of AVAX astatine the time. The token fell 57% from its $55.51 precocious connected Feb. 11, 2021, to $23.85 by the extremity of the month.

Aksoy was described arsenic a “marketing expert” that was paid to beforehand a merchandise competing with Ava Labs, according to the suit. Cointelegraph contacted Emre Aksoy for a remark but did not person a effect by work time.

The laminitis of blockchain level Ava Labs tin prosecute defamation claims against a cryptocurrency marketer and "thought leader" implicit comments helium made connected societal media. https://t.co/aTpel0gxFf

— Law360 (@Law360) October 27, 2021

According to Law360, connected April 28, United States territory justice Beth Bloom said Sirer was entitled to $750,000 successful wide damages for reputational harm. The justice said a anterior grounds from Sirer “adequately shows helium suffered sizeable reputational harm, among different things.”

The justice wrote:

“[The] Plaintiff experienced anxiousness and fearfulness during his predominant trips to Turkey due to the fact that of his justified interest that helium would beryllium arrested and detained by the Turkish authorities upon introduction arsenic a effect of the defendant’s allegations that helium was a subordinate of FETÖ.”

Bloom besides awarded Sirer $300,000 successful “special damages for his accrued information costs” and $2 cardinal successful punitive damages to “deter the benignant of malicious behaviour perpetrated by the defendant.”

Ava Labs is the steadfast down the Avalanche network, a layer-1 astute declaration platform.

Related: Long-standing crypto task vs. scam: Ava Labs CEO shares cardinal difference

Speaking astatine a blockchain league connected New York City’s Roosevelt Island past week, Sirer commented that the manufacture could not see itself mature until regulators tin work and audit code.

His comments travel amid a broader crypto crackdown successful the U.S. wherever regulators person taken enforcement actions against everything from staking to stablecoins.

Magazine: Crypto wintertime tin instrumentality a toll connected hodlers’ intelligence health