TL,DR
- The UK Supreme Court in the BSV case refused to hear the appeal in a $13 billion lawsuit against exchanges.
- The decision validates previous rulings that limit speculative damages for lost future gains following delisting.
- The ruling is a key legal victory for exchanges like Binance and sets a precedent on listing/delisting liability.
The UK Supreme Court dealt a major blow this week to one of the largest crypto-related lawsuits. The court refused to hear an appeal in the $13 billion litigation brought by Bitcoin Satoshi Vision (BSV) investors, thereby supporting lower-court rulings that narrowed claims against major crypto exchanges, such as Binance and Kraken, over the token’s delisting.
The decision on December 8 was swift. The court ruled that “BSV Claims Limited’s application does not raise an arguable point of law or a point of law of general public importance.” This refusal is viewed as a crucial legal victory for the defendants and a clear signal that UK courts are unwilling to underwrite multibillion-dollar claims built on hypothetical or speculative market outcomes.
Legal Precedent: Exchange Liability
The refusal by the UK Supreme Court in the BSV case further weakens the lawsuit, effectively blocking claims that exchanges can be held liable for speculative future gains allegedly lost after delisting a token.
The wider industry has paid close attention to this issue, as it touches upon the liability of exchanges in their listing and delisting decisions.
Irina Heaver, a crypto lawyer and founder of NeosLegal, commented that the outcome “sends a clear signal to the next ‘real Satoshi and the real Bitcoin’ wanting to test their luck in courts.”
In May 2025, the Court of Appeal had already dismissed the challenge by BSV Claims Limited, ruling that BSV holders who were (or should have been) aware of the 2019 delistings were required to mitigate their losses by selling the asset in the available market. Therefore, they could not recover speculative “foregone growth” damages.
In summary, the lawsuit originated from the delisting of BSV in 2019 by multiple exchanges, following controversies surrounding the project. The claimants alleged that the exchanges coordinated the removal of BSV, violating UK competition law and causing the price to collapse.
However, the decision by the UK Supreme Court confirms that exchanges are not obligated to preserve liquidity or price discovery for assets that the market no longer supports or trusts.
