CAT certifies major crypto dispute for investors in Bitcoin Satoshi Vision

29/07/24

By a judgment of 26 July 2024, the Competition Appeal Tribunal has certified for collective proceedings a claim brought by BSV Claims Limited on behalf of investors in Bitcoin Satoshi Vision (“BSV”), a form of cryptocurrency. By a series of tweets and other public announcements between 12 and 19 April 2019, the defendants, being exchanges in cryptocurrencies, announced that they would delist BSV from their trading platforms and duly proceeded to do so. These ‘de-listing events’ arose out of the well-known controversy surrounding the claims of Dr Craig Wright to be Satoshi Nakamoto (the founder of bitcoin). 

The PCR contends that the announcements and subsequent de-listing of BSV (which caused its value to crash) constituted infringements of Art 101 TFEU / the Chapter I prohibition in s.2 Competition Act 1998. This gives rise to an unusual feature of the case, where the alleged ‘collusion’ took place within a public forum, viz. Twitter / X. 

The Sixth Defendant, Binance Europe Services Limited (“Binance”), sought to strike out the claims of Sub-Class B, being BSV holders who retained their holdings following de-listing, insofar as they related to a ‘foregone growth effect’ , i.e. the causation theory that but for the infringement BSV would have become a major cryptocurrency. It was contended that the “market mitigation rule” rendered such foregone growth effect irrecoverable in law because BSV holders could have mitigated future losses by selling their coins and reinvesting. That application was refused on the basis that it gave rise to evidential questions about the Class’s knowledge of the infringements and ability to mitigate by investing in different assets, which were not suitable for summary determination. However, the CAT did strike out the claim insofar as it related to a loss of a chance for BSV to become a major cryptocurrency. The claim was otherwise certified.

The judgment is available here.