BANKEX Sues Matter Labs for Alleged Technology Theft – Coincu

A lawsuit filed by BANKEX in the New York State Supreme Court accuses Matter Labs of technology theft on March 19. The complaint claims former BANKEX employees misappropriated code for Ethereum scaling.

If proven, it affects innovation ties between leading blockchain entities and senior developers.

BANKEX Accusations and Matter Labs’ Defense

On March 19, BANKEX alleged in its lawsuit filed with the New York State Supreme Court that former employees stole technology to found Matter Labs. Alexandr Vlasov and Petr Korolev, originally part of a BANKEX team commissioned by Vitalik Buterin to develop Plasma technology, are at the center of these allegations. The complaint suggests Matter Labs, including its co-founder Alex Gluchowski, used BANKEX resources to establish their Layer 2 solution.

Matter Labs, refuting the allegations, maintains that its ZKsync protocol is original and independent of BANKEX’s technology, according to a spokesperson. Alex Gluchowski, Co-founder of Matter Labs, remarked, “The claims are baseless, and ZKsync is original technology unrelated to any code developed by BANKEX.” This assertion is crucial as the company continues its development efforts without interruption. Despite the accusations, no immediate financial fallout or institutional withdrawal has been reported by associated funds, including Dragonfly and Placeholder Capital.

Market reactions remain calm. ZKsync and Ethereum-based assets display resilience, with no marked exit of funds or value shocks evident from the recent lawsuit. Key figures, including Vitalik Buterin, are not directly involved in the lawsuit, though his initial commissioning of BANKEX frames the technological milieu.

Industry Implications and Market Data

Did you know? In similar past disputes, highly publicized open-source tech theft cases have struggled in court due to the complex nature of open-source IP laws and community-led development environments.

ZKsync trades at $0.05 with a market cap of $197,007,210. The fully diluted market cap stands at $1,125,755,485. Trading volume is reported to be $31.91 million with recent 24-hour price growth of 3.23%. ZKsync’s 7-day price appreciation was 15.40%, but a 66.05% decline has been observed over 90 days, per CoinMarketCap data.

Coincu research comments on potential industry impacts, hinting at increased scrutiny on intellectual property among developers and firms. This scrutiny may reshape future collaborations and partnerships in blockchain development, as the sector wrestles with balancing open-source innovation against IP protection demands.

Uniswap Labs investigation reveals similar challenges within the blockchain industry regarding tech innovations.