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.
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 U.S. 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.
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”.