BiT Global files lawsuit against Coinbase over allegations of breaching antitrust laws by delisting WBTC

BiT Global has filed a suit against Coinbase, the largest crypto trading level successful the United States, according to a Dec. 13 court filing.

The Justin Sun-linked crypto custodian alleged that the US speech unfairly removed wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) from its level to favour its in-house product, Coinbase Wrapped Bitcoin (cbBTC).

Antitrust violations

According to the tribunal filing, Coinbase is leveraging its dominance successful the crypto marketplace to suppress competition. BiT Global accused the speech of violating antitrust laws by replacing WBTC with cbBTC to found power implicit the wrapped Bitcoin market.

The ailment noted that Coinbase’s actions are not lone anti-competitive but strategically aimed astatine expanding its transaction revenues due to the fact that transaction fees connected its level are expected to emergence arsenic cbBTC gains traction.

The filing furthered:

“On accusation and belief, Coinbase utilized this language—that it would not complaint wrapping/unwrapping fees ‘today’—because it plans to bash truthful erstwhile it has unfairly eliminated the competition.”

BiT Global disputed Coinbase’s assertion that WBTC was removed owed to “listing standards,” citing the exchange’s caller inclusion of meme coins similar PEPE and MOG arsenic evidence.

According to the filing, these actions uncover that the delisting was not astir prime but alternatively an effort to seizure WBTC’s marketplace position. It added:

“The determination to let users to commercialized these memecoins makes wide that Coinbase did not delist WBTC due to the fact that of immoderate listing standard, but due to the fact that Coinbase coveted WBTC’s marketplace stock and wanted it for itself.”

Through this lawsuit, BiT Global seeks to reconstruct contention and forestall further centralization of power. The steadfast aims to halt the delisting of WBTC and support decentralized innovation successful the crypto space.

The wrapped Bitcoin market

Coinbase’s determination to delist wBTC comes aft a turbulent twelvemonth for the asset. BiT Global became a cardinal custodian for WBTC this year, pursuing BitGo’s determination to administer custody power to aggregate entities, including the Hong Kong-based firm.

This displacement sparked concerns wrong the DeFi assemblage owed to Justin Sun’s transportation to the crypto custodian, prompting MakerDAO and Aave to reconsider WBTC arsenic a collateral asset.

While these DeFi protocols yet retained WBTC, the developments raised questions astir its semipermanent stability. In effect to these challenges, respective firms, including Coinbase, launched their ain wrapped Bitcoin products.

However, Coinbase’s cbBTC has quickly gained momentum to go the second-largest wrapped Bitcoin merchandise down WBTC. The token was deployed connected Ethereum and its Layer 2 web Base successful September and presently has a marketplace capitalization of astir $2 billion.

On the different hand, WBTC, contempt being among the apical 20 cryptocurrencies with a $13.7 cardinal marketplace cap, has seen its token proviso shrink by implicit 20,000 BTC owed to ongoing challenges.

The station BiT Global files suit against Coinbase implicit allegations of breaching antitrust laws by delisting WBTC appeared archetypal connected CryptoSlate.