BiT International has filed a lawsuit in opposition to Coinbase, the biggest cryptocurrency buying and selling platform in the USA, based on a Dec. 13 court docket submitting.
A cryptocustod linked to Justin Solar claimed that the US alternate unfairly eliminated Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) from its platform in favor of its personal product, Coinbase Wrapped Bitcoin (cbBTC).
Antitrust violations
In accordance with the court docket submitting, Coinbase is utilizing its dominance within the crypto market to stifle competitors. BiT International has accused the alternate of violating antitrust legal guidelines by changing WBTC with cbBTC to achieve management of the capped bitcoin market.
The criticism famous that Coinbase's actions usually are not solely anti-competitive, however strategically aimed toward rising its transaction revenues, as transaction charges on its platform are anticipated to rise as cbBTC positive factors traction.
The submission was additional supported by:
“Primarily based on data and perception, Coinbase has used this language — that it’ll not cost packaging/unpacking charges 'in the present day' — as a result of it plans to take action as soon as it unfairly excludes competitors.”
BiT International disputed Coinbase's declare that WBTC was eliminated attributable to “itemizing norms”, citing the alternate's current itemizing of meme cash like PEPE and MOG as proof.
In accordance with the submitting, these strikes reveal that the delisting was not about high quality, however slightly an try to seize WBTC's market place. Added:
“The choice to permit customers to commerce these memecoins clearly exhibits that Coinbase didn’t take away WBTC due to some itemizing customary, however as a result of Coinbase wished WBTC's market share and wished it for itself.”
With this lawsuit, BiT International seeks to revive competitors and stop additional centralization of energy. The agency's objective is to cease WBTC from being phased out and defend decentralized innovation within the crypto area.
Packaged Bitcoin Market
Coinbase's resolution to delist wBTC comes after a turbulent 12 months for the asset. BiT International turned the important thing custodian for WBTC this 12 months after BitGo determined to distribute custody administration to a number of entities, together with a Hong Kong-based agency.
The transfer raised considerations within the DeFi group over Justin Solar's affiliation with a cryptocurrency depository, prompting MakerDAO and Aave to rethink WBTC as a collateral asset.
Whereas these DeFi protocols finally retained WBTC, the event raised questions on its long-term stability. In response to those challenges, a number of companies, together with Coinbase, have launched their very own packaged bitcoin merchandise.
Nevertheless, Coinbase's cbBTC has shortly gained momentum to develop into the second largest encapsulated Bitcoin product behind WBTC. The token was deployed on Ethereum and its Layer 2 Base community in September and at present has a market capitalization of round $2 billion.
Then again, WBTC, regardless of being among the many high 20 cryptocurrencies with a market cap of $13.7 billion, has seen its token provide drop by greater than 20,000 BTC attributable to fixed challenges.
