Singapore is about to get its first bitcoin dispute trial
Dispute involves trade proceeds that were allegedly wrongly reversed
By Jessica Lin
A legal dispute involving bitcoin will soon head for trial at the Singapore International Commercial Court (SICC), a first for the city-state.
The Straits Times (ST) reported that the dispute was between electronic market maker B2C2 and bitcoin exchange operator Quoine.
In May, B2C2 had reportedly sued Quoine over trades that the former alleged were wrongfully reversed, resulting in proceeds being deducted.
The trade proceeds had a value of US$3.78 million , which has now potentially ballooned to US$30 million, ST reported.
B2C2 sought to recover 3,084.78582325 bitcoins from Quoine but the case will go to trial as a judge declined to grant summary judgment.
According to ST, B2C2 is accusing Quoine for breach of trust, claiming the latter “acted fraudulently” and “deprived it of the opportunity to sell the proceeds on the date of their highest intermediate value”.
B2C2 says that it had placed orders on Quoine’s platform to sell ethereum for bitcoins at the price of 10 bitcoins for one ethereum. Although the orders were filled and bitcoins were subsequently credited into B2C2’s account, the trades were reversed the next day.
Quoine then argued it was entitled to do so because there was a “huge mark-up over fair global market price”, and that the average market price was way below at about 0.03929075 bitcoin for one ethereum.
As the virtual currency market is currently unregulated in Singapore, B2C2 says there is no legislation which constrains the buying and selling of virtual currencies or their trade prices.
Quoine, however, is alleging that B2C2 is “seeking to profit from a technical glitch”.
“It is the defendant’s case that the plaintiff deliberately placed the orders at the abnormal rate in bad faith and for the purpose of manipulating the market,” Quoine was quoted by ST as saying.
