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Crypto Firm Binance Fighting To Dismiss $11.5 Billion Claim By BSV Token Investors

By Alex Ioannou

Last Updated: Jun 10, 2024

The Binance vs BSV legal case stems back to 2019 and came around after BSV affiliate Craig Wright falsely claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto.

The largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, has appealed to have a large portion of a £10 billion ($12.8 billion) lawsuit against them thrown out. It is claimed that Binance and multiple other exchanges colluded to have the Bitcoin Satoshi Vision (BSV) token “delisted” across the market.

Binance To Fight Against £9 Billion Claim From BSV Holders

The BSV Holders case is being overseen at London’s Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT). It was brought forward by a group of over 200,000 holders of the BSV token. Kraken is the other high-profile exchange being sued in the case.

Claims made by lawyers representing the BSV holders state that the exchanges engaged in anti-competitive behaviour in order to delist BSV in 2019. The argument is that this behaviour stopped BSV from becoming a “top tier” cryptocurrency as the collusion from the exchanges resulted in the price of BSV crashing. The prosecutor values this aspect of the claim at up to £9 billion.

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Binance Lawyers Argues BSV Holders Held Token Voluntarily

Binance is seeking for the CAT to dismiss the part of the case that claims it prevented BSV from becoming a major cryptocurrency. This claim is being made by the lawyers representing BSV holders who continued to hold the token even after it had been delisted.

Brian Kennelly, Binance’s lawyer, has refuted these claims. He stated that people who continued to hold BSV had made “an entirely voluntary decision”. He went on to add that they “could reasonably have sold it and reinvested it in comparable cryptocurrency”.

In response to Binance attempting to have this part of the case dismissed, lawyers for BSV argued in court documents that the issue should proceed to trial with the rest of the case.

Craig Wright At The Centre Of This Case

This case stems back to 2019, when Binance, along with Kraken and other exchanges all delisted BSV from their platforms. It was delisted due to Australian computer scientist, Craig Wright having close ties with the BSV project. Around this time, Craig Wright was making claims that he was the pseudonymous “Satoshi Nakamoto”, the creator of Bitcoin.

A UK judge ruled in May 2024 that Craig Wright lied extensively and forged documents during the high-profile trial. The judge went on to slam Wright’s narrative as “riddled with inconsistencies and absurd explanations”. He also added that Wright was “not nearly as clever as he thinks he is.” Craig Wright has announced his decision to appeal the decision.

Disclaimer: Crypto is a high-risk asset class. This article is provided for informational purposes and does not constitute investment advice. You could lose all of your capital.

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Disclaimer

Crypto is a high-risk asset class. This article is provided for informational purposes and does not constitute investment advice. You could lose all of your capital.

Alex Ioannou
Alex Ioannou
On-Chain Journalist

Alex is an aspiring writer focusing on the more degen side of the crypto world. Always on the lookout for the next hot narrative. Read More

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