The UK Court of Appeal has dismissed the main part of the lawsuit filed by Bitcoin SV (BSV) investors against the cryptocurrency exchange Binance and other platforms. The investors, who intended to seek compensation of nearly $12 billion, accused the exchanges of colluding to delist BSV in 2019.
This is reported by Finway
The plaintiffs claimed they lost over £8.9 billion (approximately $11.9 billion) due to the inability to trade the token. However, the court ruled that those who held tokens during the delisting (the so-called subclass B) are not entitled to compensation for hypothetical profits.
Court Ruling and Key Arguments
In its ruling delivered on May 21, the court noted that the plaintiffs’ argument that the delisting deprived them of the opportunity to profit from the potential increase in BSV’s value was unfounded. Judge Geoffrey Vos emphasized that “they cannot claim compensation for losses that could have been avoided.” He also pointed out that investors had a “duty to mitigate their losses,” such as selling tokens or investing in other assets after the delisting announcement.
“BSV was clearly not a unique cryptocurrency without reasonably similar substitutes,” the court stated.
Next Steps and Impact on Binance
The court also acknowledged the possibility of further consideration of other parts of the lawsuit, including claims of inadequate disclosure to investors regarding the delisting. However, even in this case, compensation cannot exceed the value of the assets prior to delisting and direct proven losses.
This ruling represents a significant legal victory for Binance, which in turn has filed a motion for the complete dismissal of a separate $1.76 billion lawsuit filed by the liquidation committee of the FTX exchange. Binance argues that the collapse of FTX was caused by internal fraud rather than external factors, citing Sam Bankman-Fried’s admission of guilt in multiple fraud cases.
It is worth noting that BSV investors recently announced their intention to revive the lawsuit, and the streaming platform Netflix has announced a series about the collapse of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange.