OKX, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency exchange, is facing a nationwide class action lawsuit in a California federal district court over allegations that its “meteoric rise was achieved through willfully violating numerous U.S. laws and regulations” at the expense of “consumers, investors, and American national security.”

Tonya M. Evans, a leading authority in digital asset litigation and a Penn State Dickinson Law professor who is not involved in the matter, said that the allegations raised the issue not only of the responsibility of centralized exchanges to deliver the primary transactional services, but also their fiduciary duty to safeguard assets.