Justin Sun Confronts Coinbase CLO on wBTC Delisting and $1B Legal Battle

Highlights

Justin Sun confronted Coinbase's Paul Grewal question whether they actually follow fair listing standards.
BiT Global sued Coinbase accusing the exchange of anti-competitive practices.
WBTC is facing competition from Coinbase's cBTC which has quickly risen to become the second-largest tokenized Bitcoin.

Tron founder Justin Sun has recently confronted Coinbase CLO Paul Grewal in a discussion over the delisting of wBTC from crypto exchange Coinbase. The news caught fire when Justin Sun’s BiT Global, which recently took a major stake in the wBTC ecosystem, slapped a lawsuit on Coinbase for the delisting of wrapped Bitcoin.

Justin Sun Questions Coinbase on wBTC Delisting

Justin Sun’s BiT Global will be suing crypto exchange Coinbase, which decided to delist wrapped Bitcoin (wBTC), and instead launched a competing product cBTC back in September. On November 19, Coinbase announced plans to delist Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) starting December 19, 2024, citing a periodic review of its listing standards.

However, delisting the largest tokenized version of Bitcoin i.e. wBTC has grabbed the attention. Earlier this year, BiT Global Trust took custodial rights for WBTC. Now it alleges that Coinbase isn’t following its “fair” listing standard and is removing wBTC to weed out competition for its newly launch cBTC.

Law firm Kneupper & Covey, representing BiT Global, has filed a lawsuit alleging that Coinbase’s decision to delist Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) is anti-competitive and violates multiple state and federal laws. The suit claims the delisting will cause significant harm to BiT Global, which recently assumed custodial responsibilities for WBTC under a new arrangement. In a statement on Friday, attorney Kevin Kneupper said:

“We believe this decision sets a terrible precedent for everyone in the cryptocurrency space. If an exchange of Coinbase’s size can delist a cryptocurrency just as it plans to launch its own competing product, who’s safe? And who’s next?”

However, Coinbase CLO Paul Grewal has justified the exchange’s actions noting: “When an asset no longer meets our listing standards, we will drop it. When another asset can meet or exceed market requirements without sacrificing those standards, we will list it. Thank you Bit Global for the chance to show this to a US federal court and on the entire global crypto stage”.

Responding to this, Justin Sun pointed out an earlier statement by Armstrong back from 2021, wherein he stated: “Outside of our listing standards, we do not offer an opinion on the value of each asset. We are asset agnostic because we believe in free markets”. Sun told Grewal that his views don’t match that of Coinbase founder’s.

Listing “Valueless” Meme Coins?

The law firm representing BiT Global stated that Coinbase has recently listed several “fundamentally valueless” memecoins, yet has now deemed Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) as failing to meet its standards. The recent one includes the listing of Peanut the Squirrel (PNUT). It added:

“Once the value in wBTC had been demonstrated, Coinbase changed the rules, delisting wBTC from its platform so that it could no longer be traded on the Coinbase platform—and it did so shortly after launching its own knock-off clone called cbBTC”.

In September 2024, Coinbase introduced cbBTC on Ethereum and its Layer 2 network, Base. Since its launch, cbBTC has become the second-largest tokenized version of Bitcoin, boasting a market capitalization of just over $2 billion.

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Bhushan Akolkar

Bhushan is a seasoned crypto writer with over eight years of experience spanning more than 10,000 contributions across multiple platforms like CoinGape, CoinSpeaker, Bitcoinist, Crypto News Flash, and others. Being a Fintech enthusiast, he loves reporting across Crypto, Blockchain, DeFi, Global Macros with a keen understanding in financial markets.   He is committed to continuous learning and stays motivated by sharing the knowledge he acquires. In his free time, Bhushan enjoys reading thriller fiction novels and occasionally explores his culinary skills. Bhushan has a bachelors degree in electronics engineering, however, his interest in finance and economics drives him to crypto and blockchain.

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