Bitcoin SV investors are attempting to revive a 2019 lawsuit against Binance for delisting the altcoin. Bitcoin SV, a hard fork of Bitcoin Cash, which itself is a hard fork of the Bitcoin protocol, saw its price stunted as a result of the exchange’s actions, the litigants have claimed.
According to reports, the investors have asked the United Kingdom Court of Appeal to readmit their claim that the delisting caused them to lose out on significant growth in the value of their holdings. In July 2024, the Competition Appeal Tribunal struck out an element in their complaint, where the Bitcoin SV investors argued that the Binance action resulted in a “forgone growth effect,” a move that prevented the token from fully developing into one of the top-tier digital assets in the market today.
If this claim is allowed to stand, the court could announce a verdict where Binance could pay the highest possible financial penalty, which is above $13 million, based on the assumption that Bitcoin SV could have grown to the same height that Bitcoin was in July 2022, when the investors originally filed their claim.
Bitcoin SV investors want to revive the Binance lawsuit
Last Thursday, at the Court of Appeal, the legal representatives of the investors also argued that the court should hear the loss of chance claim of their clients when the case goes to trial. They believe that the delisting has caused a permanent loss of value to their clients as a result of the stunted growth of the token.
“Because of the delisting, there has been damage which continues to this day,” said John Wardell KC, the lawyer representing the investors.
In its pre-trial judgement in July 2024, the Competition Appeal Tribunal refused to honor Binance’s request to throw out the case completely. However, it agreed with the exchange that the “market mitigation rule” applied to the delisting, which meant that the majority of Bitcoin SV holders were aware of BSV’s removal before it happened and would have had enough opportunity to convert their tokens into alternatives.
“The evidence currently before us as to the extent to which any BSV holders could reasonably have remained sufficiently unaware to exclude the market mitigation rule is … scant and high-level,” the tribunal’s judges concluded at the time. However, lawyers for BSV have argued this week that the market mitigation rules do not apply in this case, because they alleged that investors could not avoid the loss by trading into alternative assets.
BSV lawsuit takes a new twist
Binance’s lawyers have argued against the reasoning put forward by the investors’ legal representatives, with Brian Kennelly KC of Blackstone Chambers asking the Court of Appeal, “BSV could have been exchanged for Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies,” he said. “BSV is and was, at all relevant times, a readily marketable asset.” not to reverse its 2024 decision on the so-called forgone growth effect.
The case against Binance is a part of a class action lawsuit involving Kraken, Bittylicious, and ShapeShift, which all delisted the token between April and June 2019. The claims were submitted by BSV Claims Limited, a special-purpose vehicle for which Lord Currie of Marylebone serves as sole director. Lord Currie was the chair of the UK telecoms regulator Ofcom and the Competition and Markets Authority.
The case was registered on behalf of all UK-based Bitcoin SV holders between April 2019 and July 2022, with the number of investors estimated to be around 243,000. Partner at legal firm Edmonds Marshall McMahon, Ashley Fairbrother, noted that the case is very novel and it has an extraordinary backstory.
“Last year, in an unprecedented case, the English High Court found that Dr Craig Wright was not Satoshi and that he had orchestrated a fraud not only on many people and companies, but also on the Courts of England and Wales, Norway, and the USA,” he said. According to Fairbrother, Wright used his false claims to influence investment in BSV, which enabled him to profit from the lies.
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