- The UK Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal by BSV Claims Ltd over a rejected damages model in its $13 billion lawsuit
- The company had argued delistings of BSV from major exchanges in 2019 deprived investors of gains equivalent to a 352x increase in value
- The ruling confirms that damages can only be based on the actual market loss of £16 per coin, not speculative future value
The UK Court of Appeal has upheld a prior ruling that struck down the most ambitious part of a $13 billion class action by BSV Claims Ltd, which sought damages from major crypto exchanges over the 2019 delisting of Bitcoin Satoshi Vision (BSV). The judges rejected arguments that investors missed out on astronomical gains due to the potential future growth of BSV and reaffirmed that only actual losses at the time of delisting could be considered. BSV Claims Ltd, which was established purely for the lawsuit, has sued four cryptocurrency exchanges, alleging that they colluded to delist the cryptocurrency, damaging holders in the process.
BSV Claims and the Incredible Lawsuit
BSV Claims Ltd represents over 240,000 holders of BSV, a Bitcoin fork co-created by Craig Wright, who falsely claimed to be Bitcoin’s inventor. In 2019, exchanges including Binance, Kraken, ShapeShift, and Bittylicious delisted BSV following Wright’s decision to start libel proceedings against multiple critics. The delistings led to a drop in BSV’s price from £55 ($86) to £39 ($53), although this would prove to be a temporary correction; BSV hit $453 a year later.
The lawsuit alleges this coordinated action was anti-competitive and has demanded that the exchanges it claims were behind the collusion pay for the damages caused to holders. While the Competition Appeals Tribunal allowed the case to proceed in 2024, it rejected the claim’s most speculative element: a theory that holders lost out on billions in hypothetical BSV growth. BSV Claims appealed this, with the hearing taking place earlier this month.
“Foregone Growth Effect” Dismissed
The appeal focused on whether the Tribunal had prematurely ruled out the so-called “foregone growth effect” — an expert theory claiming BSV would have risen to the value of top-tier cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. BSV Claims argued this justified damages exceeding £8.9 billion for one investor subclass alone, arguing that, had it not been for the delistings, BSV would have become a top-tier cryptocurrency. This is despite Wright himself and many acolytes cheering the delistings, in the belief that the exchanges were actively shorting BSV anyway.
Following a hearing in which BSV Claims’ barrister didn’t seem to understand his client’s arguments, the court issued its ruling on Thursday, in which all three judges disagreed with the concept of foregone growth in this case, noting that it was impossible to obtain a clear idea as to the future price performance of BSV. The judges also found that claimants who knew about the delisting had the opportunity to mitigate their losses by selling BSV, applying a well-established “market mitigation rule” used in financial loss cases.
Limits to Damages, But Case Still Proceeds
The ruling does not end the case entirely, but massively limits the damages BSV Claims can seek. Claims may proceed based on the £16 per coin drop and for holders who lost access to their BSV entirely on exchanges like Kraken or Binance. BSV Claims’ desire for a huge headline-grabbing win has now been stripped from them, and it remains to be seen if it will persist with the case.
