Voyager Digital Sued for Allegedly Misleading Investors on Trading Fees

The lawsuit charges the crypto exchange with charging hidden commissions despite its claim to be commission-free.

Dec 29, 2021 at 9:53 p.m. UTC

Updated Feb 7, 2022 at 6:22 p.m. UTC

The Voyager Digital Ltd. application for download in the Apple App Store on a smartphone arranged in Little Falls, New Jersey, U.S., on Saturday, May 22, 2021. Elon Musk continued to toy with the price of Bitcoin Monday, taking to Twitter to indicate support for what he says is an effort by miners to make their operations greener. Photographer: Gabby Jones/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Michael Bellusci

Michael Bellusci is CoinDesk's crypto payments reporter.

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Publicly traded cryptocurrency exchange Voyager Digital is facing a proposed class-action lawsuit over alleged hidden fees being charged on its trades, according to a lawsuit filed in a federal Miami court on Dec. 24.

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of Florida resident Mark Cassidy, alleges that while Voyager claims to be a commission-free platform for users, it employs various methods to charge secret commissions on all its trades, including by keeping the spread (or the difference between the “bid” and “ask” price) intentionally wide.
These practices likely create more in hidden commissions than Voyager’s competitors collect from their disclosed commissions, the suit charges. One of the lawsuit’s experts estimated damages to Voyager’s customers could exceed $1 billion.
Michael Legg, Voyager’s chief communications officer, told CoinDesk that “this action is absolutely spurious and without any merit, whatsoever. We look forward to dealing with this matter through the appropriate legal channels.”
Cassidy is seeking restitution for himself along with “declaratory and injunctive relief to put an end to the Voyager Defendants’ unfair and deceptive marketing and sales practices.”

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