Chinese Investor Sues OKCoin over Bitcoin Cash from Last Year’s Hard Fork
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A Chinese investor has filed a lawsuit against cryptocurrency exchange OKCoin regarding more than 38 bitcoin cash that he claims the platform failed to distribute to him following last year’s hard fork, according to a charge sheet on LegalWeekly.
The plaintiff, known only by the pseudonym Feng Bin, claims he was expecting to get the BCH “airdrop” that occurred when the cryptocurrency hard forked away from the main Bitcoin blockchain. Upon attempting to withdraw the 38.748 BCH, which corresponds to his BTC balance at the time of fork, Bin “found that there was no button” to withdraw the BCH as the exchange had promised.
As a result, the investor has filed a $25,000 lawsuit against the platform, and he is also demanding reparations due to “losses” suffered from not being able to sell his BCH when its price reached an all-time high in mid-December.
Deadline for Claiming Bitcoin Cash
While Bin claims the exchange made it impossible for him to withdraw the BCH as promised, the exchange responded by saying there was a timeline for users to claim their BCH on the platform. According to a statement released in the publication, OKCoin says, “You cannot claim BCH anymore as the program has been removed from our platform. If you didn’t withdraw it at that time, it would be impossible to make [a] later withdrawal.”
Bin, however, countered by saying he was not aware of any deadline. According to him, he had been following the company’s announcements closely during the period, and there was “no declaration” of a deadline for withdrawing BCH from the platform, as claimed by the exchange.
“I have been paying attention to the announcement of the OKCoin currency release. In all the announcements, there is no declaration of the deadline for receipt and the removal of the program,” Bin stated.
Plaintiff Seeks Reparations
Bin is currently seeking reparations for the losses suffered as a result of being unable to withdraw his BCH and subsequently, denying him the opportunity to sell them at peak prices. He is seeking 169,969.22 yuan (approximately $25,000 in total). OKCoin, however, has no intentions of settling. They believe his claims to the holdings are questionable, describing the lack of trading activity in his account during the period as strange, given last year’s bullish run.
While this is the first lawsuit against OKCoin related to bitcoin cash, it’s not the first time the digital asset exchange is being sued. In 2016, bitcoin investor Roger Ver sued the exchange for $570,000 for allegedly terminating a contract.
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