UK Supreme Court Shuts Down $13 Billion Bitcoin SV Case Appeal

An appeal from Bitcoin ​​Satoshi Vision (BSV) investors in a case seeking more than $13 billion in damages from prominent crypto exchanges was rejected by the UK Supreme Court last week. 

The appeal stems from losses that mounted in the BSV token following its delisting by major crypto exchanges like Binance and Kraken in 2019. The latest proceedings and permission to appeal fell to three court justices who ultimately refused the appeal, as spotted by Protos.

“The application does not raise an arguable point of law or a point of law of general public importance,” justices Lord Hodge, Lord Sales, and Lady Rose concluded. 

The appellants—BSV Claims Limited—alleged that token holders suffered from “immediate and persistent effect” and “the forgone growth effect,” which pertain to the coin’s immediate fall in value following the delisting and the stunted potential growth as a result of the delisting.

BSV was launched in 2018 in an attempt to “restore” the original vision of pseudonymous Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto. It was created as a hard fork of Bitcoin Cash—which is also a fork of Bitcoin. Neither coin is worth anywhere near as much as Bitcoin (BTC).

In July 2024, the UK’s Competition Appeal Tribunal struck out the appellants’ claim on the “forgone growth effect,” dismissing an assumption that BSV would have ultimately grown to match the same value as Bitcoin itself.

In May, the appellants attempted to revive the claim, but it was dismissed once more, affirming the 2024 ruling under the “market mitigation rule,” which requires claimants to take reasonable steps to reduce their losses when functioning markets are available. 

In other words, BSV investors should have attempted to mitigate their losses when it became apparent the token was being delisted by exchanges. 

BSV has plummeted more than 96% from its 2021 all-time high of $489.75, recently changing hands at $18.37. Last year, it fell sharply amid news that a UK court ruled that Craig Wright, the creator of BSV, was not in fact the pseudonymous Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto, as he had claimed. 

Coinbase fully disabled support for BSV in 2021 after the network suffered a “51% attack” and became unstable.

While BSV has seen a downward price trajectory over the last few years, Bitcoin has continued to rise and set new peak prices in the time since, most recently setting a new high above $126,000 in October. Bitcoin was recently trading for $85,873, down 32% from that peak.