Former CMA chair sues crypto exchanges Binance, Kraken and others for £10bn

Crypto exchanges Binance, Kraken, and others have been hit with a £10bn lawsuit in a competition dispute by the former chair of the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority.

Lord David Currie filed the claim against the two crypto giants as well as exchanges Bittylicious and ShapeShift for delisting the BSV cryptocurrency from their platforms, Financial News London reported.

The lawsuit was filed at the Competition Appeal Tribunal, which will decide if it goes to trial, on behalf of about 250,000 BSV investors.

Lord Currie set up a company called BSV Claims to launch the case, which is the first crypto competition claim in the UK. 

Lord Currie said BSV investors lost about £9.9bn in 2019 due to alleged “anti-competitive behaviour” by the four exchanges and said the lawsuit was “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”, according to Financial News London.

City PM has reached out to Binance, Kraken, Bittylicious, and ShapeShift as well as BSV Claims’ lawyers Velitor for comment.

The BSV token was delisted by Binance in 2019 after a Twitter argument between Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) and BSV creator Craig Wright. Kraken, Bittylicious, and ShapeShift also delisted the token within a day on CZ’s urging.