Crypto exchange Binance today (Wednesday) sought to dismiss
a large portion of a London lawsuit, valued at up to 10 billion pounds ($12.8
billion), over allegations of collusion to “delist” the Bitcoin
Satoshi Vision (BSV) cryptocurrency.
London Lawsuit Targets Binance and Kraken
The lawsuit, brought to London’s Competition Appeal Tribunal
(CAT) on behalf of over 200,000 BSV owners, targets Binance and other exchanges
including Kraken. The suit, filed by BSV Claims, accuses the exchanges of
anti-competitive behaviour in delisting BSV in 2019.
The plaintiffs argue that
this action caused the value of BSV to drop significantly and hindered its
potential to become a leading cryptocurrency, estimating this aspect of the
claim at up to 9 billion pounds.
BSV Claims’ legal team stated that the exchanges did not
oppose the case being certified under the UK’s collective proceedings regime,
which is similar to the US class action system. This certification would mark
the initial step in the lawsuit.
Exchanges Face Scrutiny
Binance has requested the CAT to dismiss the part of the
case concerning BSV’s alleged potential to become a major cryptocurrency, which
pertains to those who retained BSV after its delisting. Binance’s lawyer, Brian
Kennelly, argued that those who kept BSV made a “voluntary decision”
and had the option to sell it and reinvest in a comparable cryptocurrency.
.@Binance asked the @CATribunal to throw out most of the claims against it and other exchanges in a UK lawsuit seeking more than 10 billion pounds for anticompetitive behavior relating to the delisting of the $BSV token in 2019. @sheldonreback reports. https://t.co/BBZhY0NKZB
— CoinDesk (@CoinDesk) June 5, 2024
BSV Claims’ lawyers contended in court documents that this
issue should be allowed to proceed to trial along with the rest of the case. Binance
did not provide a comment on the ongoing legal proceedings. Meanwhile, a Kraken
spokesperson labelled the lawsuit as “baseless.”
In 2019, Binance, Kraken, and other exchanges delisted BSV.
This decision was partly influenced by claims from Australian computer
scientist Craig Wright, associated with BSV, who asserted that he was the
pseudonymous inventor of Bitcoin, known as “Satoshi Nakamoto“.
This article was written by Tareq Sikder at www.financemagnates.com.
