UK Supreme Court Refuses to Hear BSV Appeal Against Crypto Exchanges

The UK Supreme Court has refused BSV Claims Limited’s request to appeal the decision of the lower courts. In a decision on December 8, the three justices refused to grant BSV Claims Permission to appeal.

According to their ruling, the permission to appeal was refused because the application did not raise any arguable point of law.

They wrote:

“The application does not raise an arguable point of law or a point of law of general public importance.”

UK Support Court Ruling Derails BSV $12 Billion Case Against Exchanges

The ruling by the UK Supreme Court now means the $12 billion lawsuit against crypto exchanges will continue, but with a limited scope. BSV Claims had sued several crypto exchanges, including Binance, Kraken, and Bittylicious, for delisting the Bitcoin Satoshi Vision (BSV) token.

BSV is a hard fork of Bitcoin Cash by self-acclaimed and legally-debunked Satoshi, Craig Wright. Several exchanges delisted BSV due to Wright threatening to sue them if they refused to acknowledge that he is the real Satoshi Nakamoto.

In the lawsuit filed in 2024, BSV Claims argued that the decline in the price of BSV was due to delisting by crypto exchanges starting in 2019. They claimed that this was what prevented the token from competing with Bitcoin and asked for billions in damages from exchanges.

However, UK courts at all levels have rejected the attempt to blame exchanges for speculative future gains of the token. The Competition Appeal Tribunal, where the case was first heard, rejected the argument that BSV suffered a loss of chance.

Interestingly, the UK Court of Appeals also agreed with this decision, noting that they could not claim damages for future gains. According to the Master of the Rolls:

“Even if BSV holders reasonably remained unaware of the delisting events for much longer periods, I cannot see how they could ever claim more than the total value of their holding before the delisting events plus any quantifiable consequential losses such as trading fees.”

BSV Case Can Continue on Narrower Scale

Meanwhile, the court decision represents a positive outcome for crypto exchanges. Many experts believe the outcome of the case will set a precedent in the industry.

With the Supreme Court now rejecting the application, the only option for BSV holders is to continue the lawsuits within the narrow scope of the original application. The Tribunal allowed Sub-Class B holders to continue with their claim.

Under its ruling, holders are only entitled to claim losses due to the immediate decline in BSV value following the delisting. This severely limits any potential recovery and also places the responsibility of mitigating losses after delisting on the holders.

BSV is down more than 5% today and now trades at $18, continuing its downtrend. The token is down 64% year-to-date and has lost 96% of its value since hitting a peak of $489 in 2021.