The number of securities class action lawsuits filed in the first six months of 2025 was roughly level with the number of securities suits filed in the second half of 2024, according to a new report from Cornerstone Research. The number of suits filed in the first half of 2025 is also roughly level with the historical semiannual average number of filings. The July 30, 2025, report, which Cornerstone Research produced in conjunction with the Stanford Law School Securities Class Action Clearinghouse, is entitled “Securities Class Action Filings: 2025 Midyear Assessment,” can be found here. Cornerstone Research’s July 30, 2025, press release regarding the report can be found here.

According to the report, there were a total of 114 securities class action lawsuits filed in state and federal courts during the first six months of 2025. Three of the 114 suits were standalone state court securities class action suits (“standalone” meaning without a parallel federal court suit); the remaining 111 securities suits were federal court filings. The number of first-half securities suit filings (114) annualizes to a year-end total of 228, which is higher than the 226 total in 2024, and would in fact represent the highest annual total since 2000.

The number of first-half securities suits filings (114) is roughly level with the 1996-2024 historical semiannual average of 113 filings, and roughly level with the 115 securities suits filed in the second half of 2024. There were only three securities class action merger objection lawsuits filed in the first six months of 2025, meaning there were 111 “core” securities class action lawsuits in the year’s first half. The 111 core securities suit filings in the first six months of 2025 were higher than the 1997-2024 semiannual average of core filings of 97.

Several factors contributed to the number of securities suit filings in the first six months of 2025; the report refers to the lawsuits filed based on these factors as “trend filings.” The trend categories with the most filings in 1H25 were as follows: artificial intelligence (AI), with 12 filings; cryptocurrency, with six filings; and SPACs, with five filings.

The annualized number of AI-filings is on pace in 2025 to far surpass the 2024 total of AI-related filings (15). Cornerstone Research’s press release about the 1H25 filings report quotes Stanford Law Professor Joseph Grundfest as saying with respect to the first half AI-related filings that “ChatGPT explains the increase in AI-related securities litigation as ‘primarily driven by the phenomenon known as “AI washing”—where companies exaggerate, misrepresent, or falsify the extent or significance of their AI capabilities to investors and the public. This often results in legal claims when the truth is revealed and investors suffer losses.’ I have nothing else to add to this AI explanation of AI litigation.”

The six first-half cryptocurrency related filings suggest a heightened filing pace for these kinds of lawsuits compared to 2024, where there were seven total cryptocurrency related filings for the full year. There were only two COVID-19-related securities suit filings in the year’s first half, compared to 15 for the full year 2024; the two first-half COVID-related filings represents the lowest number of such filings since the trend first emerged in 2020.

The report notes that at the current pace, 4% of the companies listed on major U.S. exchanges are or will become subject to a securities class action lawsuit in 2025, which is level with 2024, when the percentage was also 4%, but would represent an increase compared to above 2023 (when the percentage was 3.3%). The 4% projected litigation rate would be below the 2011-2024 annual average percentage of 5%, but that annual average is someone distorted by the flood of federal court class merger objection lawsuit filings during the period 2016-2020.

There were 12 core federal filings against non-U.S. companies in the first half of 2024, suggesting an annualized year-end total of 24 filings against non-U.S. companies, which would be the lowest number in at least ten years, and well below both the recent high number of filings against non-U.S. companies of 73 filings in 2020, and below the 34 filings in 2024.

The report reflects two different measures of investor losses represented in the securities class action lawsuits filed in the year’s first six months. The first of these is Disclosure Dollar Loss (DDL), which measure the dollar value change in the defendant company’s share price between the trading day immediately prior to the end of the class period and the trading day immediately after the last day of the class period. The second of these is Maximum Dollar Loss (MDL) which measure the difference in the defendant company’s share price between the trading day during the class period with the highest market capitalization and the share price on the day following the end of the class period.

The MDL and DDL figures show that though the number of securities suit filings in the first half of 2025 was roughly in line with both the number of filings in the second half of 2024 and the long-term historical semiannual averages, the MDL and DDL increased substantially. Iin other words, though the number of 1H25 filings is consistent both with the recent past and long-term averages, the cases filed were substantially larger than with both the recent past and long-term averages.

The MDL that the first half filings represent increased to $1,851 billion in 1H25 from $730 billion in 2H24, and substantially above the 1997-2024 semiannual average of $622 billion.

The DDL also increased, to $403 billion in 1H25 from $259 billion in 2H24, and substantially above the 1997-2024 semiannual average of $125 billion.

One final observation: the 111 federal court securities class action lawsuit filings that the Cornerstone Research report noted for the first half of 2025 is consistent with the same number of federal court filings (111) I reported in my own survey of the first half securities suit filings, here.