In the United States federal courthouse of the Southern District of New York, Judge Katherine Failla listened to arguments from three plaintiffs suing iFinex et al. Those teams of plaintiffs are also competing to serve as the lead counsel in the upcoming class action lawsuit, which could have tens of thousands of members. Tether, trading under USDT, is a stable coin from iFinex. The firm's Bitfinex subsidiary and iFinex together are charged with manipulation of the Bitcoin market in 2017.

Kyle Roche, who is representing plaintiffs Leibowitz et al., stated that the law firm Roche Cyrulnik Freedman LLP was the first one to investigate the situation. He also said that cryptocurrency is unique and the laws around it are new. This case presents a big challenge to defining things under the law. Roche added that the case should include other cryptocurrencies, such as Ether, which have been harmed by the alleged manipulation.

According to Roche, cryptocurrency works as a single market. He made a reference to the Griffin paper in the court's evidence. In the paper by John M. Griffin and Amin Shams, there was an investigation about the influence of Tether on Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies during the boom of 2017. The authors noted the timing of Tether and market downturns.

Many cryptocurrency investors have been skeptical for quite a while about whether or not Tether is backed by the United States dollar at the one-to-one ratio the company claims. The attorneys are pitting their research against experience. Karen Lerner, who represents plaintiffs Young, Kurtz and Crystal et al., argued that her experience at Kirby McInerey LLP would be more useful than Roche's research.

Cochran, who is an attorney representing Ebanks et al. questioned Roche's cryptocurrency research and experience. Cochran says he has already handled two class action cases related to cryptocurrency. Ultimately, the big question is who will get to lead the class action lawsuit. Whoever does stands to gain quite a substantial amount of money in the event of a judgment in their lawsuit's favor. The packed courtroom is proof of the interest in the cryptocurrency case.