Key Takeaways
- The Court of Appeal rejected the “foregone growth” argument, which proposed that BSV would have appreciated to the level of Bitcoin if it remained available on major platforms.
- The lawsuit, brought by BSV Claims Limited, alleged that Binance and other exchanges including Kraken, ShapeShift, and Bittylicious harmed the market by delisting BSV, a token created by controversial figure Craig Wright.
A UK appellate court has dismissed most of a $13.3 billion (Euro 10 billion) class action lawsuit against crypto exchange Binance, rejecting claims that Bitcoin SV (BSV) could have rivalled Bitcoin in value had it not been delisted in 2019. The ruling significantly narrows the case and strikes a blow to more than 240,000 investors seeking damages.
In a judgment delivered Wednesday, the Court of Appeal rejected the “foregone growth” argument, which proposed that BSV would have appreciated to the level of Bitcoin if it remained available on major platforms. The court ruled the theory speculative and unsupported by legal precedent, siding with the Competition Appeal Tribunal’s 2024 decision.
Master of the Rolls Sir Geoffrey Vos questioned how claimants could assert losses hundreds of times greater than the value of their original holdings. When pressed, the claimants’ legal team—led by senior barrister John Wardell KC—could not provide a satisfactory justification.
The lawsuit, brought by BSV Claims Limited, alleged that Binance and other exchanges including Kraken, ShapeShift, and Bittylicious harmed the market by delisting BSV, a token created by controversial figure Craig Wright. Wright’s claim to be Bitcoin’s inventor was dismissed by a UK court earlier this year.
The judgment also rejected a “loss of chance” argument, finding it legally inapplicable. The court said that the damages did not stem from lost opportunities involving third parties, but instead from whether BSV would have organically grown into a dominant asset—a claim that could be assessed based on existing evidence rather than hypothetical scenarios.
Further weakening the case, the court cited testimony from the claimants’ own expert, who used Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash as benchmarks, undercutting the notion that BSV was a unique asset.
Still, the ruling leaves open the possibility for smaller claims. These may include investors who lost access to BSV following delistings or those who sold at steep losses immediately after. The “market mitigation rule” applied by the tribunal means investors had a duty to minimize losses when a functioning market remained available.
BSV’s price fell 13% in the past 24 hours, continuing a slide triggered by the Craig Wright verdict. The coin’s legitimacy and prospects have taken repeated hits as legal challenges mount and exchange support dwindles.
