The Supreme Court of the U.K. declined to hear an appeal regarding a protracted $13 billion lawsuit involving investors in Bitcoin Satoshi Vision (BSV), supporting prior rulings that limited claims against prominent crypto exchanges related to the token’s delisting.
In a short ruling issued on December 8, the court stated that BSV Claims Limited’s “application does not present a valid point of law or one of broader public significance.”
For exchanges like Binance, which requested that the U.K. Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) dismiss the case, this Supreme Court decision is a crucial legal win, signaling that U.K. courts are not prepared to support multibillion-dollar crypto claims based solely on speculative market conditions.
“This outcome sends a definitive message to anyone claiming to be the ‘real Satoshi and the real Bitcoin’ regarding their willingness to challenge the system in court,” Irina Heaver, a crypto attorney based in Dubai and founder of NeosLegal, remarked to CoinDesk in an interview. “Continued litigation cannot replace trust and acceptance in the market. Courts are not instruments for reversing reputational downturns or reviving contentious projects when the market has already made its judgment.”
The court’s ruling further undermines one of the most significant crypto-related lawsuits filed in the U.K., effectively preventing claims that exchanges could be held accountable for speculative future profits allegedly lost following the delisting of a token, a situation that the industry is monitoring closely due to concerns about exchange liability for their listing choices.
Heaver noted that the “lost chance” argument stretches damage law past reasonable boundaries, effectively compelling courts to validate speculative stories in crypto, or, in the case of BSV, seemingly unfounded ones, where claimed losses hinge on future acceptance, belief, and market sentiment rather than actual legal or economic damage.
In a May ruling from this year, the U.K. appellate court rejected BSV Claims Limited’s appeal against previous rulings, asserting that BSV token holders who were (or should have been) aware of the 2019 delistings were obligated to mitigate their losses by selling in an existing market and could not seek speculative “lost growth” damages.
The lawsuit originated from 2019 delistings of BSV by several exchanges, including Binance, Kraken, Shapeshift, and Bittylicious, following controversies involving the project and its proponents. The claimants alleged that the exchanges conspired to eliminate BSV, violating U.K. competition law and causing the token’s value to plummet.
“This case affirms what many in the sector have long recognized: exchanges are not required to maintain liquidity or price discovery for assets that the market has decided to distrust. Delisting does not constitute market manipulation,” Heaver stated. “Trust, reputation, and risk perception are vital in the crypto space, and exchanges have the right to take measures to safeguard their traders and businesses.”
BSV Claims Limited did not promptly respond to CoinDesk’s request for a statement.
