Quoine Exchange Sued Over Multimillion-Dollar Bitcoin Trade Reversal

Cryptocurrency market maker B2C2 is reportedly suing the exchange over major bitcoin trades it alleges were unfairly reversed.

AccessTimeIconAug 2, 2017 at 11:00 a.m. UTC
Updated Sep 13, 2021 at 6:47 a.m. UTC
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Cryptocurrency market maker B2C2 is suing exchange service provider Quoine over bitcoin trades worth millions that were reportedly reversed in April.

According to the Strait Times, the lawsuit was recently filed in the Singapore High Court, with B2C2 aiming to regain the 3,084 bitcoins (worth around $8.4 million at press time) from the exchange.

The filings assert that on April 19, B2C2 successfully sold 309 ether for 3,092 bitcoins, creating a profit of $3.7 million. The bitcoin, priced at $1,226 at the time, was worth around 25 times more than the ether tokens, according to CoinDesk Price Index.

However, such profit drew attention from Quoine, which reversed the trades the next day, arguing that they represented a "huge mark-up over fair global market price." The exchange says that B2C2 is overreaching in its pursuit of repayment, telling the news source it is "being opportunistic and seeking to profit from a technical glitch."

B2C2, on the other hand, alleges the proceeds were "misappropriated" by Quoine without authorization. Citing an agreement with the exchange, it further claims the action was "fraudulent."

Quoine says the technical malfunction occurred as it was updating its system against potential cyberattacks, during which the platform was unable to aggregate accurate market prices for both cryptocurrencies.

Gavel image via Shutterstock

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