Bitcoin SV and the ruling in the United Kingdom: the 11.9 billion dollar damages claim rejected

In the United Kingdom, the judges have ruled on the case concerning Bitcoin SV and its delisting in 2019 on major crypto-exchanges like Binance.

A British court has ruled against a claim for 11.9 billion dollars in speculative damages from investors following the 2019 delisting of Bitcoin SV on major crypto-exchanges, including Binance.

The investors, classified as “subclass B,” will not be entitled to the compensation.

The case arose from the actions of crypto-exchanges like Binance, Kraken, and ShapeShift in 2019 when they delisted Bitcoin SV following a decision by the founders of Bitcoin Cash to maintain the original chain after a contentious fork.

This led to a group of investors filing a claim for damages, ultimately reaching the British court.

The judgment, written by Master of the Rolls Sir Geoffrey Vos, classified the investors into subclasses.

Those belonging to “subclass B” had continued to hold BSV even after the delisting and claimed today’s 11.9 billion dollars in damages as the delisting had deprived them of profiting from the “potential rise of BSV to a first-tier cryptocurrency,” like Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash.

However, the jury rejected this theory of growth as “speculative.”

“The claim for damages is dismissed,” the ruling stated.

The court highlighted that the investors had a duty to mitigate their losses by selling BSV or exchanging it with other crypto.

“They had the duty to mitigate the losses. They cannot recover the losses that they could have reasonably mitigated. [..] Any damages must reflect the market value immediately after the delisting, not hypothetical future highs.”

The ruling elaborates on the types of damages that various investor subclasses can claim.

Unlike BSV investors of subclass B, those of “sottoclasse A” and “sottoclasse C” can still claim damages from crypto-exchanges.

Investors of the “subclass A” who sold Bitcoin SV immediately after the delisting can still claim compensation for the immediate drop of 16 pounds per coin, as identified by the Competition Appeal Tribunal.

Even users of the “subclass C” who have lost access to their Bitcoin SV coins on exchanges like Kraken or Binance can proceed, but any compensation will be limited to the value of their holdings plus demonstrable consequential losses.

In practice, the Court has rejected, in any form, the argument regarding the “loss of benefits from future price increases”. All investors are called to prove, in a concrete and non-hypothetical way, their losses.

At the same time, with this verdict, Binance achieved a partial victory, which eliminates the 11.9 billion dollars in compensation requested.

Now, however, both Binance and other crypto-exchanges like Kraken and ShapeShift still have to deal with the remaining compensation claims.