Since suspicions involving Ava Labs arose, the GameFi project Trident has retracted its plan to debut on Avalanche. The AVAX token has also decreased in value.
Avalanche Suffers Amid Lawyer Allegations
Even if the current allegations that Ava Labs conspired with attorneys to harm other projects are groundless; they still harm the Avalanche ecosystem.
Trident provided an update in reaction to the allegations late Sunday night, stating that it had abandoned its intention to debut on Avalanche.” Due to recent developments, Trident will not deploy on Avalanche as planned. It will instead debut on the Ethereum Layer 2 network Arbitrum.
In light of recent news, Trident will not be deploying on Avalanche as previously planned.
Instead, we take Atlantis to Arbitrum.
Thank you. pic.twitter.com/7UG1GUUdf7
— Trident Ψ (@TridentDAO) August 28, 2022
Crypto Leaks, a self-described “whistleblower,” released a post on August 26 saying that Ava Labs had bribed the law firm, Roche Freedman, to sue Avalanche’s competitors and keep authorities at a distance. The rumour spread on Crypto Twitter, aided by a now-deleted tweet from Changpeng Zhao, Binance’s chief executive officer. Emin Gün Sirer and Kevin Sekniqi, both executives of Ava Labs, disputed the claim, with Sirer dismissing it as “conspiracy theory nonsense.”
Investors suffered the burden of the claims as well. As is typical when a project is struck with negative news, Avalanche’s AVAX token plummeted more than 8% on Sunday as the Crypto Leaks piece circulated. Since then, it has registered a tiny rebound to $19.04, down 4.8% in the preceding twenty-four hours.
Despite doubts about the accuracy of the charges, several crypto pundits have condemned Ava Labs since the news broke. Cobie, an UpOnly co-host, tweeted that he believes “biased reporting” and other factors undermine Crypto Leaks before aiming at Ava Labs. “Things that look bad for ava labs… the video lol,” he added.
Kyle Roche Breaks Silence on Ava Labs Drama
Today, Kyle Roche, the founding partner of Roche Freedman who was featured in a series of undercover video recordings as part of Crypto Leaks’ investigation, broke his silence on the issue. He stated that the report contained multiple misleading claims without citations and illegally obtained, heavily altered video clips not presented in their proper context.
Roche claims he was interrogated by Dfinity founder Dominic Williams’ staff Christen Ager-Hanssen. In August of 2021, Roche’s company launched a lawsuit against Dfinity. Dfinity is the team behind Internet Computer, a Layer 1 network previously one of the most anticipated crypto projects. However, Internet Computer had a steep decline in 2021, as its ICP token dropped 95% in weeks, prompting accusations that Dfinity was dumping coins on investors.
Roche stated that although his firm has represented Ava Labs since 2019, the business has had no impact on the cases brought by Roche Freedman. According to Roche, contrary statements in the film are untrue and were obtained via deceitful techniques. The statements have been heavily manipulated and taken out of context.
Roche could not explain his remarks about how he assists Ava Labs in evading SEC and CFTC regulatory supervision, nor did he provide specifics regarding the pay Rocheman Freed earned for representing Ava Labs.
Roche Freedman and Ava Labs did not react to our request for comment about the claims. CoinCulture has also contacted Williams and Ager-Hanssen for comment and will update this post as they respond.