Cryptocurrency Settlements at Miller LLC: Cryptsy and BitConnect

Silver Miller is a Florida litigation firm that has become one of the most active plaintiffs’ shops in United States cryptocurrency fraud cases, and its reported cryptocurrency settlements and judgments now exceed $250 million in cumulative litigation against digital-asset exchanges. The headline results include a $60 million judgment tied to the Cryptsy exchange collapse, a $962,500 class settlement with Coinbase for Cryptsy victims, an $11.2 million judgment against a Bitcoin Ponzi operator, and a lead-counsel role in the BitConnect class action.¹²

Who Runs the Firm

David C. Silver and Jason S. Miller announced the formation of Silver Miller on August 31, 2017, and built the practice around a contingency-fee model.³ Both founders are graduates of the University of Miami School of Law. Silver previously practiced at Patton Boggs LLP and served as lead counsel in FDIC investigations of failed financial institutions.⁴ Miller’s earlier work included representing the Successor Trustee of Southeast Banking Corporation and serving as outside counsel to the FDIC.⁵

The firm operates as Silver Miller Group, headquartered in Coral Springs, Florida, with satellite offices in Riverdale, Maryland, and Washington, D.C.⁶ Its work covers cryptocurrency litigation, investment fraud, FINRA arbitration, professional malpractice, SIM swap fraud, and “pig butchering” romance-scam recovery.⁷

The Cryptsy Judgment

The firm’s flagship crypto matter grew out of the 2015 collapse of Cryptsy, a Florida-based exchange whose founder and CEO, Paul Vernon, allegedly stole user assets. Silver Miller, co-counseling with Wites & Rogers, filed what the firms describe as the first-ever cryptocurrency class action, and the case achieved the first-ever class certification in a cryptocurrency dispute.⁸

Liu v. Cryptsy (S.D. Fla., Case No. 9:16-cv-80060-KAM) alleged that Vernon and related parties stole more than $8.3 million in Bitcoin from users. Silver Miller secured a $60 million judgment and negotiated resolution against the exchange, Vernon, and their associates, along with a court order requiring Vernon to return more than 11,300 Bitcoin to victims.⁹²

The class settlement itself amassed roughly $1.5 million in recoverable assets, translating to about a 35% recovery for class members who submitted valid claims.⁸ The distance between the $60 million judgment figure and the cash actually distributed reflects a common pattern in crypto fraud recovery: judgments against defendants who have absconded or hidden assets are difficult to collect.

The Coinbase Settlement for Cryptsy Victims

Silver Miller and Wites then filed a separate class action against Coinbase, alleging the exchange knew or should have known that Vernon was using its platform to liquidate stolen Cryptsy funds. Leidel et al. v. Coinbase, Inc. was filed in 2016 in the Southern District of Florida on behalf of class representative Brandon Leidel.¹⁰

Coinbase moved to force the claims into arbitration. The Eleventh Circuit affirmed the trial court’s denial of that motion, holding that Cryptsy account holders were not bound by Coinbase’s arbitration clause because they had no direct contract with Coinbase.⁸ The case then settled for $962,500, paid into escrow for Cryptsy victims, designed to push total victim recovery past 50% of losses when combined with the earlier Cryptsy settlement. Class members who had already submitted valid claims in the Cryptsy settlement did not need to file new claims.¹⁰

The Bitcoin Savings and Trust Judgment

In one of its earliest cryptocurrency matters, Silver Miller represented investors in Liquid Bits v. Trendon Shavers and Bitcoin Savings and Trust (S.D. Fla., Case No. 14-cv-61771). The case involved a Texas-based operator, Trendon Shavers, who was alleged to have run a Bitcoin Ponzi scheme through his exchange. The firm obtained a final judgment of $11,264,457 against Shavers and the exchange, which Silver Miller describes as one of the first significant judgments in cryptocurrency fraud litigation.⁴²

The BitConnect Class Action

Silver Miller took a lead role in litigation against BitConnect, a U.K.-based platform that authorities alleged operated as a multi-level-marketing Ponzi scheme. The firm consolidated six separate class actions into Wildes, et al. v. BitConnect International PLC, et al. (also styled In re BitConnect Securities Litigation) in the Southern District of Florida (Case No. 9-18-cv-80086). On June 20, 2018, Judge Donald Middlebrooks appointed the firm as co-lead counsel.¹¹

The complaint, which reached a third amended version, alleged unregistered sale of securities, conversion, and civil conspiracy between the exchange and its U.S. social-media promoters. The case has been described as a $2.5 billion class action. The Eleventh Circuit issued a decision on February 18, 2022; the final resolution and any monetary recovery are not detailed in the available records.¹¹

Other Cryptocurrency Cases

Kraken: a $50 million group arbitration alleging platform failures and inadequate security. Silver Miller describes the matter as successfully resolved; terms are not public.²
Monkey Capital: a default judgment against Monkey Capital, LLC, an ICO promoter.¹²
Giga Watt: a case against the ICO promoter resolved through settlement.¹²
Tezos: Silver Miller represented investors in class action litigation against the Tezos ICO promoters. A $25 million Tezos settlement was reached in 2020, though lead counsel on that settlement was Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP, and Silver Miller’s specific role in the resolution is unclear from the record.²¹³
Binance: on August 16, 2024, Silver Miller filed Martin et al. v. Binance et al. in the Western District of Washington against Binance Holdings and BAM Trading Services (Binance.US), alleging the exchanges knowingly converted or aided in the conversion of tens of millions of dollars in stolen cryptocurrency by failing to follow basic KYC and AML standards. The case is active.¹⁴

Alongside the crypto work, the firm reports $44 million in Bitcoin ordered returned to investors and $25 million recovered against a national accounting firm for failing to detect a Ponzi scheme. Current investigations include a $54 million class action inquiry into the prediction market platform Kalshi and guidance to OneCoin fraud victims about DOJ compensation deadlines.¹

Watch Out for Impostor Recovery Firms

If someone contacts you claiming to be Silver Miller or an affiliated recovery lawyer, verify carefully before sending money or information. The prominence of firms handling cryptocurrency settlements has spawned a wave of scammers who impersonate lawyers to victimize crypto fraud victims a second time. An FBI alert in August 2025 described schemes using fake insignia and letterheads, claims of authorization by government agencies, and contact only through encrypted messaging apps like Telegram and WhatsApp.¹⁵

Between February 2023 and February 2024, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center reported that cryptocurrency scam victims lost more than $9.9 million to these secondary schemes.¹⁶ Red flags include requests for upfront payment in cryptocurrency or gift cards, refusal to appear on video, and claims of partnership with the FBI or other agencies. The FBI has stated that “there are no law firms which are officially authorized partners of US Government agencies.”¹⁵

Silver Miller has posted its own warnings, advising that the firm does not communicate through Signal or social media and that clients should never wire funds to the firm.¹ One entity calling itself “Ethan Miller LLP” has been identified as showing the hallmarks of a recovery scam, including communicating only through Telegram, lacking attorney biographies, and falsely claiming participation in a federal court cryptocurrency settlement that records show was handled by a different firm.¹⁷

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Silver Miller. $60 Million Judgment and Negotiated Resolution Against Corrupt Cryptocurrency Exchange
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Yahoo Finance. Coinbase Hands Nearly $1M to Cryptsy Victims
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Silver Miller. Wildes et al. v. BitConnect International PLC et al.
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ABA Journal. Blockchain Neophyte Carves Out Niche in Cryptocurrency Litigation
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Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP. Reaches $25 Million Settlement for Tezos ICO Investors
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Silver Miller. Binance Class Action and Money Laundering
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FBI. Fictitious Law Firms Targeting Cryptocurrency Scam Victims
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JustAnswer. Ethan Miller LLP Crypto Recovery Legitimacy