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A £9.9 billion class action lawsuit has been filed against Binance, Bittylicious, Kraken and Shapeshift. The plaintiffs are mostly BSV Blockchain investors.
Jordan Atkins of CoinGeek.com writes that The four cryptocurrency exchanges are accused of colluding to damage the prospects of BSV by delisting the asset without good reason, thereby reducing, preventing or distorting competition in the United Kingdom in breach of the Competition Act 1998.
Kraken and Binance are also accused of causing further losses to BSV investors by “forcibly converting BSV to other cryptocurrencies without investors’ consent.”
The law firm Velitor Law is representing the plaintiffs in this matter.
Lord David Currie of Marylebone is leading the claim. He is a British economist specialising in regulation, and a cross-bench member of the House of Lords. Currie was the inaugural Chairman of the Competition and Markets Authority.
“I also regard this case as an opportunity to demonstrate that competition law applies in the sphere of crypto assets in the same way that it does to other economic activities. Much of my professional life as an economist and a regulator has been concerned with consumer protection. Ensuring fair competition is an essential part of protecting consumers. Consumers investing in cryptocurrencies take the risk of volatile prices. They should not have to take the risk of the value of their investment being affected by anti-competitive practices.”
“The fact that the delisting activity described… was concerted and has gone unchallenged by regulators raises, to my mind, serious consumer protection issues.”
Atkins reports that Binance cited the process by which it reviews assets to be listed - and delisted, as was the case in 2019 - but couldn’t point to any specific reasons why BSV had been excluded.
- Aaron Goldstein, Gambling911.com
