California judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín gave crypto exchange Coinbase the green light to delist wrapped bitcoin (WBTC) despite attempts by digital asset custodian Bit Global to force Coinbase to continue offering the asset.
Lawyers representing the two firms sparred during a webinar on Wednesday before Martínez-Olguín delivered her ruling in favor of Coinbase.
After announcing its intention to delist WBTC in November, Coinbase was sued on Friday for $1 billion by Bit Global on antitrust grounds. Bit Global sought a temporary restraining order (TRO) from the courts to prevent the exchange from delisting the token, claiming “irreparable injury” and “harm” from Coinbase’s actions.
But during Wednesday’s court hearing, Bit Global’s lawyer – who appeared flustered at times, even stating, “I don’t want to be a blowhard,” – was unable to convince a visibly frustrated Martínez-Olguín to issue a TRO, allowing Coinbase to proceed with WBTC’s delisting, although Bit Global is free to present a stronger case for consideration in the future.
“At this juncture I will not issue a TRO,” Martínez-Olguín said. “I will not stop Coinbase from delisting WBTC.”
“If, Mr. Covey, you have more evidence, we can revisit this, but that’s my ruling today,” she added, referencing Bit Global’s lawyer, Cyclone Covey.
The decision is the latest chapter in the wrapped bitcoin (WBTC) delisting saga that began in August when WBTC custodian Bitgo announced a partnership with Bit Global, a company partly owned by infamous Tron Network founder Justin Sun.
Sun has been dogged by multiple allegations of fraud and market manipulation and is considered a questionable character by many in the crypto community.
Unsurprisingly, the partnership announcement drew significant backlash, prompting Bitgo CEO Mike Belshe to address the concerns publicly.
“We too were concerned that some would react this way to his name,” Belshe wrote, in reference to Sun. “Which is why we made sure to announce his involvement up front, even though he won’t actually have the ability to move any funds arbitrarily.”
The move caused stablecoin issuer Maker DAO to eliminate its exposure to WBTC and compelled Coinbase to engage Bit Global to determine the extent of Sun’s influence, but after Bit Global refused to disclose specific ownership details, Coinbase decided to delist the asset, effective December 19.
“Notwithstanding the substantial industry concern around Mr. Sun’s involvement and Coinbase’s repeated inquiries,” Coinbase wrote in a court filing. “BiT [Bit Global] provided no information to assure Coinbase that Mr. Sun would not be in a position to compromise WBTC’s integrity.”
Interestingly, Coinbase launched its own flavor of wrapped bitcoin called cbBTC in September, raising questions about the timing of the delisting.
“Because of the reduction of WBTC’s market share and the attack on its reputation, Bit Global stands to lose more than $1 billion in its market valuation, especially if Coinbase’s conduct continues unabated,” Bit Global’s legal team outlined in court documents.
WBTC still dominates the wrapped bitcoin niche, garnering 85% of the Ethereum market share while cbBTC is a distant second at 5.3%. WBTC trading volume on Coinbase represents only 1% of all WBTC trading, according to court documents.
免责声明：本文章仅代表作者个人观点，不代表本平台的立场和观点。本文章仅供信息分享，不构成对任何人的任何投资建议。用户与作者之间的任何争议，与本平台无关。如网页中刊载的文章或图片涉及侵权，请提供相关的权利证明和身份证明发送邮件到support@aicoin.com，本平台相关工作人员将会进行核查。
